Table 2.

Asthma severity in sample (n=32) per British Thoracic Society Steps (BTS, 1997 ²⁴ )

BTS Step	Number of patients
	Primary care (n = 13)	Secondary care (n = 19)
1	2	2
2	7	5
3	4	3
4	0	2
5	0	7
Total	13	19

Key to BTS Steps:

Step 1: Occasional use of relief bronchodilators.

Step 2: Regular inhaled anti‐inflammatory agents.

Step 3: High dose inhaled steroids or low dose inhaled steroids plus long acting inhaled beta‐agonist bronchodilator.

Step 4: High dose inhaled steroids and regular bronchodilators.

Step 5: Addition of regular steroid tablets.