Features of asthma management: quantifying the patient perspective

BMC Pulmonary Medicine

Table 1 Attributes and levels included in the study and constraints applied prior to analysis

Attribute	Levels	Description	Constraints
Symptom relief provided by your treatment	Completely Mostly A little	ORDINAL	Completely > Mostly > A little
Inhaled steroid dose	Always a low dose High dose when required but generally as little as possible High and regular steroid use	NOMINAL (with constraints)	Always low > Always high (no other assumptions made)
Use of a written personalised asthma action plan (PAAP)	Full written instructions are provided by your doctor or nurse on how to recognise worsening asthma and how to alter your therapy yourself Brief written note is provided on how to take your medication No written instructions are provided	NOMINAL	None
Asthma crisis management	You are encouraged to: Manage an asthma crisis yourself whenever possible Attend your local GP in the event of an asthma crisis Attend hospital in the event of an asthma crisis	NOMINAL (with constraints)	GP>Hospital Yourself>Hospital (no assumption on Yourself v GP)
Number of different inhalers	A single inhaler is provided to you which contains all the inhaled medication you need for the management of your asthma No more than two inhalers are provided for the management of your asthma Three inhalers are provided to you for the management of your asthma	ORDINAL	1>at most 2>3
Controlling your asthma symptoms	You are encouraged to: Change your own therapy in response to changes in your symptoms without consulting a doctor or a nurse Speak to a doctor or nurse before making changes to treatment	NOMINAL	None

ISSN: 1471-2466