Ep. 141: Pediatric Asthma Control: Understanding the Peds-AIRQ Assessment Tool
Part of the series: The Itch Review
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Asthma is one of the most common long-term conditions in children. It is a leading cause of missed school and emergency room visits. Doctors use question tools to see how well a child’s asthma is doing and if their medicine is helping. Some tools only ask about symptoms, which can miss children who are still at risk for asthma attacks.
The lead author, Dr. Kevin Murphy, joins us to talk about “Pediatric Asthma Impairment and Risk Questionnaire: A Control Assessment for Children Aged 5 to 11 Years,” published July 2025 in Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.
In this episode, we break down the research on how asthma control is measured in children ages 5 to 11. We explain why symptom-only tools can miss high-risk children, how the Peds-AIRQ was developed, and how this new tool may help improve asthma care during clinic visits.
What we cover in our episode about Peds-AirQ
Why asthma control can be hard to measure in children: Many tools focus on symptoms like coughing or wheezing. Symptoms alone do not always show a child’s true risk. Asking about past asthma flare-ups is also important.
What the Peds-AIRQ is: A short questionnaire (tool) with 8 yes-or-no questions for children ages 5 to 11. It asks about both symptoms and past asthma attacks.
How the study was done: Researchers studied 399 children and tested which of the original 18 questions best showed whether asthma was well-controlled or not.
What the study found: The Peds-AIRQ did a good job finding children whose asthma was not well-controlled, including those at higher risk for flare-ups.
Why this matters for families and doctors: The Peds-AIRQ helps doctors see when a child’s asthma is not doing well. It also helps start clear conversations about symptoms, asthma attacks, and next steps.
About our guest
Dr. Kevin Murphy, MD, is a pediatric allergist and immunologist and the lead author of the Peds-AIRQ study. He cares for children with asthma and allergic conditions and focuses his research on improving how asthma control and risk are identified in real-world care. He practices at Boys Town National Research Hospital.
More The Itch Review episodes on asthma
More asthma in kids resources
Take the Peds-AIRQ questionnaire
What is asthma?
Asthma in Babies and Children
Childhood Asthma: A Complex Condition That Doesn’t Have to Be So Complicated - video
Check out all our epsiodes about asthma!
The Itch Review, hosted by Dr. Gupta, Kortney, and Dr. Blaiss, explores allergy and immunology studies, breaking down complex research in conversations accessible to clinicians, patients, and caregivers. Each episode provides key insights from journal articles and includes a one-page infographic in the show notes for easy reference.
Timestamps
Our episode discusses how reserachers deloped the Peds-AIRQ to measure asthma control in children ages 5-11
01:38 Meet Dr. Kevin Murphy
02:30 Study goal and why it matters
03:30 The burden of asthma in children
04:50 How asthma control is usually measured
06:50 Who was included in the study
10:00 How the Peds-AIRQ was developed
15:00 Choosing the final Peds-AIRQ questions
24:00 Key study results
31:00 Does the tool overlabel asthma as uncontrolled?
34:40 Predicting future asthma attacks
37:55 Should families use the Peds-AIRQ at home?
39:15 Doctor takeaways
