Severity of asthma

When making a diagnosis of asthma, your healthcare professional will judge the overall effect of the disease on breathing and the risk to your health or your child's health. This helps guide the choice of medicines, doses and other treatment decisions. Things considered for judging asthma severity include:

• Number of days a week or how often during a day asthma symptoms happen.
• Number of nighttime awakenings a month due to asthma symptoms.
• Impact of symptoms on daily activities.
• Spirometry test results.

Classification systems vary. Your healthcare professional may classify the disease as:

• Intermittent.
• Mild persistent.
• Moderate persistent.
• Severe persistent.

After making a diagnosis of asthma, your healthcare professional will prescribe treatments. Treatments are stepped up or down over time depending on how well symptoms are managed. Your health professional also works with you to develop an asthma action plan. This plan helps you decide what medicine to take, when to call your health professional and when to get emergency care.