Asthma is one of the most common long-term lung conditions among children and young people. It affects the airways responsible for airflow in and out of the lungs. In the UK, 5.4 million individuals have asthma and one in 11 children live with asthma. Even though it is one of the leading causes of emergency hospital admissions, asthma is considered an ambulatory care-sensitive condition, i.e., with effective management and treatment, a proportion of emergency admissions related to acute exacerbation of asthma could be prevented.

While early childhood asthma is more common in boys, a reversal occurs in adulthood. A few of the many reasons responsible for this reversal are differences in anatomical lung development in boys and girls, the role of various sex hormones in asthma pathogenesis and the menstrual cycle. In terms of socioeconomic status and asthma, several studies indicate a strong association between emergency acute asthma admissions and deprivation.

Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design this study aims to investigate the role of gender and deprivation on young people’s experience of emergency acute asthma care and the outcomes following ED presentation in Wales.

The study will begin with a scoping review followed by co-developing and co-producing the qualitative data involving young people aged 10 -17 with a history of ED presentation for acute asthma care, their parents, healthcare providers, and school staff in Wales. The findings from the qualitative interviews and focus groups would feed into the quantitative part of the study and help refine the research question to analyse routine-linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank. Finally, the qualitative and quantitative findings will be synthesised to help build the evidence base to develop a more personalised treatment plan for young people with asthma.