Key Facts
- Asthma affects how you feel and breathe.
- Asthma runs in families.
- There’s no cure for asthma, but it can be controlled.
An asthma action plan is a proactive way to keep your asthma under control. It’s written with your health care provider (HCP) and it’s personalized (just for you). An asthma plan has 3 zones – green, yellow, and red.
- The green zone lists what medications you should take every day when you are feeling well.
- The yellow zone tells you what to do at the first sign of a cough, cold, or wheeze.
- The red zone tells you what to do if your albuterol isn’t helping, or if you are very short of breath.
The idea behind having a “plan” is having important information such as: steps you need to take to stay symptom-free, a list of your medicines – the doses and how often you take them, your health care provider’s phone number, and a list of your asthma triggers, so you can have all these facts in one central location. You should have a copy of your Asthma Action Plan at home and with the nurse at school. You can also make a copy of your action plan and keep it with you. An Asthma Action Plan also includes simple and clear instructions about how to identify early symptoms of an “asthma flare-up”, how to treat them, and when to go to the emergency room. You should feel comfortable talking with your HCP about your action plan and update it as things change.
Getting Help
It can be very scary if you have trouble breathing. Having a plan in mind and knowing when to go to the emergency room will help ease your worries.
What are the signs that I need to get help right away?
- You are feeling like you need to use your fast-acting (albuterol) inhaler more than once every 4 hours
- Your fast-acting inhaler (albuterol) does not start to work within 20 minutes of when you take it.
- You are having trouble talking or walking because you are out of breath
- You are not able to breathe – call an ambulance and go to the closest emergency room
What should I do in an emergency?
If you have been using your asthma medications and they aren’t working and you can’t breathe – call an ambulance right away! If you don’t feel it’s an “emergency”, contact your health care provider. Remember – many teens have reported feeling like they should have taken an ambulance instead of having a friend or family member take them to the hospital by car, as their breathing got worse during the drive. Whoever is taking you to the hospital will not know what to do if you suddenly can’t breathe – and it CAN happen.
Our health guides are developed through a systematic, rigorous process to ensure accuracy, reliability, and trustworthiness. Written and reviewed by experienced healthcare clinicians from Boston Children's Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and consistently ranked as a top hospital by Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report, these guides combine clinical expertise, specialized knowledge, and evidence-based medicine. We also incorporate research and best practices from authoritative sources such as the CDC, NIH, PubMed, top medical journals, and UpToDate.com. Clinical specialists and subject matter experts review and edit each guide, reinforcing our commitment to high-quality, factual, scientifically accurate health information for young people.