Quality of Asthma Management in Children Attending Health Centres in Kingston & St. Andrew, Jamaica Compared with International Clinical Practice Guidelines

OBJECTIVES: To assess the quality of asthma care within the paediatric population who attended health centres in Kingston & St. Andrew (KSA) and compare this quality to Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) guidelines. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Data were collected from 257 dockets of children aged 2-17 years old with asthma attending seven health centres in KSA. RESULTS: Children aged 6-10 years accounted for 36.6% of the sample and males accounted for the majority (54.1%). There was generally poor documentation of performance indicators for asthma including written asthma action plans (1%), peak expiratory flow measurements (0%), inhaler demonstration (2.1%), and asthma control assessment (8.4%). The best documentation was for controller (60.9%) and reliever medication (63.4%) prescriptions/review. CONCLUSION: The study indicates that the documentation of paediatric asthma management in health centres in Jamaica is not congruous with international clinical practice guidelines and change is required.