A Framework for Assessing Impairment from Asthma

¹ The Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Pulmonary Division, Beth Israel Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston

A framework for asthma impairment must consider four issues: (1) an adequate definition of disease, (2) clear indices of disease severity, (3) ability to attribute impairment to the exposure, and (4) a predictable prognosis. Only when we have reasonable clinical consensus on these four points can we move forward with realistic proposals to address impairment from asthma. Even with reasonable practical ideas about these issues, many questions about asthma impairment remain unclear: how should impairment be assessed when should it be assessed, and what constitutes impairment? Further research and discussion will be necessary to resolve these questions.