Research Output
Understanding what asthma plans mean: a linguistic analysis of terminology used in published texts
  Aim: To identify from the literature what terms are used for ‘asthma plans’, with what meaning, and in what context(s).
Methods: Linguistic analysis of a selected body of asthma literature from 1989-2009.
Results: A wide range of asthma plan terminology was evident, with terms such as ‘action plans’, ‘self-management plans’ and ‘treatment
plans’ being applied inconsistently and synonymously. For individual patients the term ‘asthma plan’ can describe a clinically-determined
list of prescribed medication, an agreed plan to guide self-management of changing symptoms, or a more holistic ‘living with asthma’ plan. In some contexts the term ‘asthma plan’ was also used to describe an organisational system of care, which causes further ambiguity.
Conclusions: Within the literature, a plethora of terms is used inconsistently and with varied meaning. This is a potential, but previously unrecognised, barrier to asthma plan implementation. A taxonomy of asthma plans and a standardised definitions of terms is required.

  • Type:

    Article

  • Date:

    28 March 2011

  • Publication Status:

    Published

  • Publisher

    Springer Nature

  • DOI:

    10.4104/pcrj.2011.00012

  • Cross Ref:

    pcrj201112

  • ISSN:

    1471-4418

  • Library of Congress:

    R Medicine

  • Dewey Decimal Classification:

    616.2 Respiratory diseases

  • Funders:

    University of Stirling

Citation

Ring, N., Pinnock, H., Wilson, C., Hoskins, G., Jepson, R., Wyke, S., & Sheikh, A. (2011). Understanding what asthma plans mean: a linguistic analysis of terminology used in published texts. Primary Care Respiratory Journal, 20(2), 170-177. https://doi.org/10.4104/pcrj.2011.00012

Authors

Keywords

Asthma, action plans, self-management plans, terminology, meaning, linguistic analysis,

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