A study led by Southampton researchers has developed a set of outcome measures for severe asthma.
Severe asthma affects around 5-10% of patients with asthma. It can have a significant impact on quality of life, with many patients missing school or work due to the condition.
The new measures will help researchers identify the most effective treatments for severe asthma and improve patient outcomes.
The international team published their findings in the European Respiratory Journal.
What are core outcome measures?
Core outcome measures are a set of tools that should be used in all studies about a specific topic.
Biological therapies can treat some types of severe asthma. However, researchers currently use different outcomes to assess their effectiveness. This makes it difficult for researchers and clinicians to work out which treatments are best.
The new COMSA (Core Outcome Measure sets for Severe Asthma) will be used in future clinical trials. They will allow researchers to compare results between studies more easily.
The COMSA include quality of life, asthma control, clinical outcome measures and healthcare resource use.
Patient-centred research
People living with severe asthma were at the centre of this research. One participant said:
“There is nothing more demoralising than feeling you are ignored as the patient. Contributing to this process was rewarding, enjoyable and made me feel I could help other patients with severe asthma have a better experience than I have had as a patient.’’
Dr Ekaterina Khaleva, Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Southampton, led the research with Graham Roberts, Ratko Djukanovic and Anna Rattu. She said:
“We wanted to ensure that our COMSA include outcomes that are important to each stakeholder group.
“COMSA will harmonise the way outcome measures are reported in clinical studies. This will enable comparisons of data to produce meaningful results.
“Working together with other stakeholder representatives is essential to succeed in the development of novel approaches to patient-centred management. We hope to help improve long-term outcomes of patients with severe asthma.’’
The study was funded by the European Commission’s Innovative Medicines Initiative 2. It was a collaboration between the University of Southampton and partners from across Europe and North America.
Representatives included people living with severe asthma, health professionals, healthcare regulators, researchers and pharmaceutical companies.