Evaluation of a nurse-supervised rehabilitation programme on clinical features and systemic inflammation in Chinese children with asthma: A propensity score-matched analysis.

Aims: To evaluate whether a nurse-supervised rehabilitation programmes could improve respiratory functions and systematic inflammation in children with asthma.
Background: Children with asthma always suffer from poor life quality, and physical training and pulmonary rehabilitation could be beneficial to asthma.
Design: A retrospective, observational, single-centre cohort analysis.
Method: Baseline characteristics between the nurse-supervised rehabilitation programme and usual-care groups were matched by propensity-score matching (PSM) in a 1:1 ratio. We compared the lung function and inflammatory markers between groups.
Results: Among 52 pairs of children, differences in lung function were improved in the nurse-supervised rehabilitation group compared with those in usual-care group, including the oxygen saturation, forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced expiratory flow of 25%-75% and peak expiratory flow (all P < 0.05). Two asthma-related inflammatory markers (hypersensitive C-reactive protein and immunoglobulin E) also significantly decreased in the nurse-supervised rehabilitation group (both P < 0.001).
Conclusions: The results indicate that the nurse-supervised rehabilitation programme might be effective in improving symptom control, respiratory functions and systemic inflammation in children with asthma. The study suggests that the NSR for asthma merits further research.
(© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)