Over half of all asthma diagnoses in children are wrong

More than half of all children diagnosed with asthma do not meet the conditions for the disease. Your diagnosis may be wrong and you will receive unnecessary treatment. This costs money and is not good for the health of our children.
There are always misdiagnoses, but these are apparently very common in children with asthma. Dutch researchers now claim, based on a new study, that more than half of all childhood asthma diagnoses are faulty. Often, those affected would not have all the necessary tests done to make a clear diagnosis. This process often leads to a so-called overdiagnosis. The scientists published the results of their study in the journal "British Journal of General Practice".

Half a million children in the UK may have been misdiagnosed
In the UK alone, more than one million children are being treated for asthma. However, many of them may not have asthma at all. Dutch researchers found in an investigation that more than half of all those affected had received a so-called overdiagnosis. A retrospective analysis was used for the study, which examined 652 children between the ages of six and 18, explain the physicians. The participants had previously been diagnosed with asthma. More than half of all subjects (53.5 percent), however, showed signs and symptoms that made it unlikely that the children were suffering from asthma, say the experts.

In only 16.1 percent of the patients, asthma could be confirmed
A so-called over-diagnosis of asthma in children is common in our basic medical care that leads to unnecessary treatments, these have a negative impact on our quality of life, explains the main author Ingrid Looijmans-van den Akker. However, in only a small percentage of affected children, an asthma diagnosis has been confirmed by pulmonary function tests. The study shows that asthma was confirmed in only 16.1% of children. In 23.2 percent of the subjects, symptoms of asthma were observed, but further lung function tests are needed to confirm the suspicion, adds the physician.

"Nice" is developing a new guide to asthma based on the study's findings
The findings of the study have spurred the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) to investigate whether physicians in the UK often make a false diagnosis of asthma. "Nice" is developing a guide for healthcare professionals to provide advice and accurate diagnosis of asthma. This builds on the most appropriate tests that are currently available to safely detect any asthma disease. In addition, he should help people to monitor their symptoms better, explains Professor Mark Baker of "Nice" to the newspaper "The Telegraph". The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence urges physicians to participate in the project, so some diagnostic tests could be better reviewed, which "Nice" wanted to propose in the future, the professor adds.

Asthma is a variable disease, treatment must be variable as well
The disease can have many complex causes, so it is difficult to make a definitive diagnosis. Asthma is a very variable disease that can change over the course of our lives, or even from week to week, so treatment may need to be changed or adjusted over time, says Dan Murphy, one of the directors of "Asthma UK" the online magazine "The Huffington Post UK". For example, when pollen causes asthma in children, no symptoms of the disease can be detected during an annual winter asthma review. By contrast, the situation in summer would be very different, the expert adds.

Parents and GPs have to work closely together
It is very important that parents of children with asthma diagnosis work closely with their GP to get a complete picture of their child's asthma, say the scientists. Only in this way could optimal treatment be achieved. Parents of children with asthma diagnosis, however, should by no means prevent the new information that an affected child takes his medication without first having a clarifying conversation with her doctor, the experts advise.