Asthma treatment not up to scratch

The research, released to coincide with this month's World Asthma Day (6 May) involved 200 patients from each participating country -  Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Sweden, Brazil and Korea - completing online interviews.

Fifty-eight per cent of Australians with asthma feel the condition affects their ability to achieve what they want in life and 11 per cent state they are often anxious about their asthma.

The research also showed that patients who understand that asthma is an inflammatory disease and receive information they consider useful in managing their asthma are more adherent to their medications than patients who do not understand the disease.

But the news was not all bad. Australia came second only to Sweden in terms of the percentage of patients on controller medications (Sweden 68 per cent, Australia 58 per cent) and reliever inhalers were found to be used more frequently in Australia, Sweden and the UK.

"It's a significant concern that close to 60 per cent of asthma patients feel that their asthma is preventing them doing what they want in life," said Professor Justin Beilby, executive dean in the faculty of health sciences and professor of general practice at the University of Adelaide.

"This research is a flag that we need to re-think how we talk to people about their asthma. We need to be asking patients how they feel about their condition, about their symptoms at night, and how it affects their ability to exercise. Asthma patients can expect more from their lives," he said.

Professor Ian Charlton, Associate Professor of Medicine at Newcastle University and spokesperson for World Asthma Day said: "What was concerning from the research is that as health professionals we may not be meeting the information needs of consumers even though we have the treatments and knowledge to support people with asthma to maintain a high quality of life.

"People are prepared to shrink their lives to fit in with their asthma rather than follow the management and treatment plan as advised by their doctor," he said.

"It's also alarming that 33 per cent of asthma patients still smoke which sabotages any attempt to help their asthma. The number one priority for these patients is to stop smoking, immediately.

"It's really important to drill down to the information each patient requires and present it in a way that works for each individual.

"We need to be able to tap into each patient's goals and show them how they may be able to achieve them with better management of their asthma," Prof Charlton said.