Asthma plans need a breath of fresh air

Crucial plans for people with asthma can be compromised because they and their doctors may interpret the term "asthma attack" differently, according to a Monash University study.

A multi-disciplinary team of researchers, funded by the Cooperative Research Centre for Asthma, interviewed 62 men and women who had sought care for asthma in Australian emergency departments over a year.

Dr Rosalie Aroni, the team's health sociologist from the Monash Institute of Health Services Research, said optimal clinical care relied on clinicians and patients knowing they were talking about the same thing.

"In our study we set out to investigate the experiences and perceptions of people living with asthma -- and soon learned people had differing ideas of what constituted an asthma attack," Dr Aroni said. "Many interviewees defined asthma as 'major' or 'minor' depending upon the degree of personal control they were able to exercise at the time of an episode."

She said the issue was crucial because major epidemiological asthma studies almost always posed the question: 'how many attacks of asthma have you had in the past 12 months?'

"Epidemiological studies of chronic disease influence national and international public health planning and investment, so we need to ensure we are using the correct terminology" she said. "If we don't know what a person means when they use the term 'asthma attack', we might have clinicians and people with asthma having difficulty producing an effective asthma action plan in partnership."

The study, published in the latest Journal of Asthma, grew out of a broader study into the experiences of people with asthma.

Dr Rosalie Aroni is available for media interviews on +61 3 9594 7561.

For further information, please contact the Monash University Media Communications office on +61 3 9905 2085 or +61 3 9905 9201.

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