Education＆ScienceEducational Article

Comment by Mark Lavercombe: Understanding patient preferences is a critical component of shared decision-making, and this approach is recommended as part of asthma care in a diverse series of countries across the world. In this paper, authors from the United Kingdom and New Zealand explore the impact of the perceived risks of oral corticosteroid use in acute asthma on patient and healthcare professional (HCP) treatment preferences. Participants in both groups were willing to trade off treatment benefits against potential side effects, although patients were less willing to accept side effect risks than HCP. The authors recommend a personalised approach to asthma treatment decision-making, although this would require clinical trials to ensure safety and efficacy.