Physicians, patients, employers, managed care organizations, insurance companies, and government all want to know how different approaches to management of asthma are improving care. To this end, the field of outcomes analysis in asthma is playing a major role. Clinical, physiologic, humanistic, and economic outcomes are being assessed using different types of general and asthma-specific instruments. Historically, clinical and physiologic outcomes have been of most concern to clinicians. However, humanistic outcomes, such as health-related quality of life and patient satisfaction, shift the focus to the patient. Economic outcomes, especially cost-effectiveness, evaluate how to achieve the best outcomes at the lowest cost. These outcomes have been used to evaluate asthma intervention programs. Several large asthma outcomes research projects, which should define the future of outcomes analysis in asthma, are under way.
医生、患者、雇主、管理式医疗组织、保险公司和政府都想了解不同的哮喘管理方法是如何改善医疗服务的。为此，哮喘领域的结果分析正发挥着重要作用。正在使用不同类型的通用和哮喘专用工具评估临床、生理、人文和经济结果。从历史上看，临床和生理结果一直是临床医生最关心的。然而，人文结果，如与健康相关的生活质量和患者满意度，将关注点转移到了患者身上。经济结果，尤其是成本效益，评估如何以最低成本实现最佳结果。这些结果已被用于评估哮喘干预项目。几个大型哮喘结果研究项目正在进行中，这些项目应该会定义哮喘结果分析的未来。
