Clinical practice guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of chronic asthma in a paediatric population – A Systematic Review Protocol

Abstract Background: Chronic asthma is one of the most common childhood conditions. However, discrepancies can be identified amongst treatment recommendations made by clinical practice guidelines for the management of this condition. As such, the proposed systematic review will aim to summarise and compare paediatric chronic asthma guideline recommendations, to promote the development of cohesive guidelines for the appropriate management of this patient cohort. Methods: Our proposed systematic review will identify guidelines for chronic paediatric asthma management. The MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus databases were searched using synonyms of the following keywords: “asthma” AND “guidelines” AND “treatment” AND “pediatrics”.The quality of included studies will be assessed using the Appraisal of Guidelines, Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) instrument. Narrative synthesis will be used to describe the quality and recommendations of the guidelines. Discussion: The results of this systematic review will enhance clinical decision-making in the management of paediatric chronic asthma, and will additionally identify heterogeneity in guidelines internationally. These outcomes may minimise this heterogeneity and promote the development of an established common treatment matrix in future guidelines. Additionally, this systematic review will aid researchers in identifying gaps in knowledge and further avenues for clinical study. The results of this systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and presented at conferences.