This guideline covers diagnosing, monitoring and managing asthma in adults, young people and children. It aims to improve the accuracy of diagnosis, help people to control their asthma and reduce the risk of asthma attacks. It does not cover managing severe asthma or acute asthma attacks.

In March 2021, we highlighted the importance of including advice in the personalised action plan on minimising indoor air pollution and reducing exposure to outdoor air pollution. 

Recommendations

This guideline includes recommendations on:

Who is it for?

  • GPs and practice nurses
  • Healthcare professionals in secondary care and tertiary asthma services
  • Commissioners and providers
  • People with suspected or diagnosed asthma, their families and carers

Is this guideline up to date?

The British Thoracic Society, Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network and NICE are working together to produce UK-wide guidance on asthma diagnosis and monitoring and chronic asthma management that will update and replace this guideline. See the guideline in development page for progress on the update.

Guideline development process

How we develop NICE guidelines

This guideline updates and replaces evidence summaries ESNM3, ESNM22, ESNM34, ESNM53 and ESNM55.

Your responsibility

The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.

All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.

Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.

Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.