A study of asthma-related deaths among inner-city children and young adults shows that only about half use their home nebulisers as prescribed and rarely have an asthma action plan to manage disease exacerbations, or if they do have a written plan in the home, they rarely use it. The findings were presented at a recent conference (CHEST 2006). In the study, all asthma-related deaths in a US state between 2002 and 2004 among patients between aged 2-24 years were retrospectively analysed. There were 86 deaths during the 3-year period, 38 in children and 48 in young adults. Home nebulisers were prescribed for 52 patients, but only 30 used them regularly. Frequency of use ranged from once per week to up to 6 times per day, and 38 of the 86 patients had peak flow meters, but only 8 used them regularly. There were 29 patients with both a home nebuliser and a peak flow meter, but only 8 used them regularly. Of the 30 patients who used their home nebulisers regularly, 20 were also prescribed inhaled or oral corticosteroids, but only 11 of these patients used their steroids as prescribed. Home nebulisers were used just prior to death by 19 patients. Of the total 52 patients with home nebulisers, 9 had written asthma action plans, but none used them to assess or manage their disease. The author suggests several interventions resulting from the findings including an increase in medical supervision of patients with home nebulisers, elimination of automatic refills of steroid and beta-agonist prescriptions, which would increase medical contact at non-crisis times, and better education of both patients and physicians on the recommended asthma treatment guidelines is needed.