Asthma — optimising long-term management with inhaled corticosteroid

Published on 15 Oct 2020
Last Updated on 15 Oct 2020

This ACE Clinical Guidance (ACG) covers clinical assessment, pharmacological treatment, and non-pharmacological strategies for managing asthma over the long term, with a focus on inhaled corticosteroid as the mainstay. The accompanying Appendix provides a list of preventer medications registered for asthma in Singapore.

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Asthma Management - Optimising long-term management with inhaled corticosteroids (Oct 2020) [PDF]

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ACG Recommendations

1. Regularly assess asthma symptoms and risk of poor asthma outcomes, including factors that can influence these.

2. Consider using a validated questionnaire to assess asthma symptoms.

3. Assess factors influencing asthma symptoms or risk of poor asthma outcomes. These can be remembered with the acronym BREATHE.

4. Use inhaled corticosteroid as the mainstay of long-term asthma management.

5. For patients aged 6 years and older, do not use short-acting beta2agonist alone (without a preventer) to treat asthma long term.

6. Use a stepwise approach when selecting or adjusting preventer treatment for asthma (see Figure 2 on page 6).

7. Educate all patients with asthma or their caregivers on how to self-manage.

8. Regularly follow up all patients with asthma.

9. Referral to a specialist could be made at any point.

ACG references and appendix

• Asthma Management Appendix (Oct 2020) [PDF]

• Asthma Management References (Oct 2020) [PDF]