***TASK***
the task is to simplify the input abstract of a biomedical literature

***INPUT***
the input is the abstract of a biomedical literature

***OUTPUT***
the output is the simplified abstract for the input abstract of a biomedical literature

***DOCUMENTATION***

***EXAMPLES***

Input: A total of three studies involving 466 participants were included. There was no statistically significant difference between the asthma clinic group and the control group for most outcomes (primary outcomes: asthma exacerbations leading to hospitalisation or accident and emergency (A&E) visit, use of reliever and preventer medication, quality of life; secondary outcomes: symptoms, time lost from work and withdrawals from the intervention or usual care). However, the confidence intervals were wide for all outcomes and there was substantial heterogeneity between the studies for both A&E visits and time lost from work. One study (101 patients) looked at nocturnal awakenings due to asthma and found a statistically significant reduction in the number of patients reporting this symptom in the asthma clinic group compared to the usual care group (OR 0.31; 95% CI 0.12 to 0.77). There were no studies looking at the secondary outcome of exacerbations requiring oral steroids. There is limited evidence of efficacy for primary care based asthma clinics, and firm conclusions cannot be formed until more good quality trials have been carried out.
Output:

This review aimed to explore this question and included three studies with a total of 466 participants. These studies did not find any overall difference between asthma clinic and usual clinical practice care by a general practitioner for the following outcomes: A&E department visits for asthma, use of reliever or preventer medication for asthma and quality of life measures, but there was considerable uncertainty about these results. One study found that there was a reduction in nocturnal awakening due to asthma in the asthma clinic group compared to control but no difference in other symptom outcomes reported. Given the limited evidence found in this review, we believe that there is a need for further evidence in order to assess the effectiveness of asthma clinics.