You can control your asthma

23 April 2015

Good asthma control for patients is often sabotaged by factors beyond their control

World Asthma Day is Tuesday 5 May.

The theme is: You can control your asthma.

World Asthma Day, on Tuesday May 5, is an annual event organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma to improve asthma awareness and treatment around the world. Asthma affects approximately 235 million people and causes an estimated 250,000 deaths annually worldwide. The theme for 2015 is: You can control your asthma.

In New Zealand one in nine adults and one in seven children takes asthma medication, over 460,000 kiwis. For good asthma control it is important to use preventer medication as prescribed, to visit a health professional regularly, and to get an asthma management plan. Asthma management plans are designed to help manage your asthma and recognise when it is deteriorating before it gets to an emergency situation.

If all asthmatic patients had good control of their symptoms we would see a dramatic decrease in hospital admissions. However many patients with bad asthma have difficulty controlling it due to factors which are outside of their control. These factors include living in anovercrowded, damp or cold house, or having a low income making it harder to visit a GP or pick up prescriptions. In many cases it can be due to exposure to second hand smoke.

A soon to be released report “The impact of respiratory disease in New Zealand” highlights our poor asthma statistics including:

• Large numbers of children are still being hospitalised with asthma: 3,730 in 2013. Many people who require hospital admission with asthma have had a potentially life threatening attack. Being unable to breathe is terrifying both for the person and their family.

• Being socially disadvantaged is a major risk factor for hospitalisation or death from asthma. The most socioeconomically deprived areas have a hospitalisation rate more than 3 times that of the wealthiest areas.

• There are major ethnic disparities, with Maori and Pacific rates of hospitalisation 3 to 4 times higher than European.

• A conservative estimate of the cost of asthma to New Zealand is over $800 million per year

To reduce the impact of asthma on patients, their families and the health system the Asthma Foundation recommends:

• Further changes in tobacco control legislation in order to stay on track for the Smokefree Aoteroa 2025 target
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• Targeted programmes for those in most need to reduce inequalities and overall rates of respiratory disease.
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• All patients with asthma need to have regular access to a GP, be given an asthma action plan, and be able to afford prescription costs for medicines that are required for life.
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We are asking the Government to improve incomes for all low income families with children, to develop a housing strategy that will result in all children being well housed, and to improve access to primary health care for all New Zealanders. Some people may ask whether we can afford to do these things in tough economic times; the real question is can we afford not too?

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