Asthma may impair quality of life
13 September 2005

People with asthma are at increased risk of experiencing psychological distress and reduced quality of life, say Australian scientists, who have called for health programmes to tackle these side-effects.

Researchers from the Australian Center for Asthma Monitoring in Camperdown studied information about more than 13,000 adults aged 18-64 from the National Health Survey – a representative sample survey that is taken every three years in Australia.

Analysing the results, they found that people with asthma were significantly more likely to report lower levels of happiness, poorer health, greater anxiety or depression and more limited physical activity than their counterparts without asthma.

Asthma was found to have a higher adverse impact on health and well-being than diabetes, but lower than arthritis.

'Asthma is an important contributor to the burden of ill health and impaired quality of life in the community, having impacts on measures of physical, psychological and social functioning and well-being,' concluded the study's authors.

'Further work is needed to develop a framework of interventions that will help decrease the burden of the disease, thus reducing its impact on people's quality of life,' they recommended.

Improving quality of life through better care and policies

A 2004 report by Asthma UK found that more than 3.5 million people in the UK needlessly experienced debilitating symptoms that restricted their daily activities - and that could be avoided with better access to health services and improved policies.

'It seems that available care and treatment are not relieving symptoms for many people with asthma, although there are many measures that could be taken to improve this situation,' said Josianne Roma-Reardon, Asthma UK's Senior Policy & Information Officer.

'Research shows that a combination of better patient education, more specialist services and regular reviews can help people with asthma to get their symptoms under control and enjoy a better quality of life,' she added.

The study is published in Thorax.