The effect of goal setting in asthma self-management education: A systematic review.

Only nine studies were included, and some were small pilots or underpowered, so the review cannot settle questions about healthcare use, emotional health or children. Goal setting was combined with different education components and delivered by different providers in different settings, and the dose or session length was often unclear. Methodological quality was uneven: allocation concealment was often unclear, blinding was usually not possible, one study allocated groups by location with high bias, and only three studies used intention-to-treat analysis. Child evidence was weak: three child studies were included, one was underpowered, and one school-based study had no control group. One study did not report baseline age or gender, and some studies did not report session number or duration. The review was limited to English and Chinese articles because no translation resources were available.

The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The research was funded by the Science and technology department of Guangdong province.

Do not conclude that goal setting alone improves asthma outcomes or reduces emergency visits. It was always part of broader asthma education, and healthcare-use findings were inconsistent, with no significant reduction in emergency department visits in the studies that assessed them.