Evaluation of a nurse-supervised rehabilitation programme on clinical features and systemic inflammation in Chinese children with asthma: A propensity score-matched analysis.

AIMS To evaluate whether a nurse-supervised rehabilitation programmes could improve respiratory functions and systematic inflammation in children with asthma. BACKGROUND Children with asthma always suffer from poor life quality, and physical training and pulmonary rehabilitation could be beneficial to asthma. DESIGN A retrospective, observational, single-centre cohort analysis. METHOD Baseline characteristics between the nurse-supervised rehabilitation programme and usual-care groups were matched by propensity-score matching (PSM) in a 1:1 ratio. We compared the lung function and inflammatory markers between groups. RESULTS Among 52 pairs of children, differences in lung function were improved in the nurse-supervised rehabilitation group compared with those in usual-care group, including the oxygen saturation, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory flow of 25%-75% and peak expiratory flow (all P < 0.05). Two asthma-related inflammatory markers (hypersensitive C-reactive protein and immunoglobulin E) also significantly decreased in the nurse-supervised rehabilitation group (both P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that the nurse-supervised rehabilitation programme might be effective in improving symptom control, respiratory functions and systemic inflammation in children with asthma. The study suggests that the NSR for asthma merits further research.