Since the first asthma guidelines were published more than 30 years ago, there has been a trend towards producing unified guidelines that apply to all age groups. This has been prompted by the recognition that common pathogenic and inflammatory mechanisms underlie all asthma, evidence-based literature on the efficacy of key controller and reliever medications, and an effort to unify treatment approaches for asthma patients in different age categories. This approach avoids repetition of details that are common to all patients with asthma. There is relatively little age-specific data on management of asthma in children, and guidelines have tended to extrapolate from evidence gained from adolescents and adults
