Smokers underestimate their asthma
09 July 2007

Smokers with mild asthma do not always perceive how breathless they really are, a study suggests.

Researchers subjected a total of 50 smokers, 26 with mild asthma and 24 without asthma, to a methacholine challenge – a medical test in which the patient breathes in a substance that causes narrowing of the airways.

Having taken the test, people with asthma who smoked were less aware that their airways had become obstructed than those people who smoked and didn’t have asthma.

This study could go some way to explaining why as many as 22% of people with asthma smoke, compared with 24% of the general population. In 2006, Asthma UK’s National Asthma Panel showed that 82% of people with asthma say that tobacco smoke triggers their asthma symptoms; yet the percentage of people with asthma who smoke is only slightly below that of the general population.

Dr Victoria King, Asthma UK’s Research Development Manager, said:

'This study suggests that smokers with asthma underestimate the effect that tobacco smoke is having on their breathing, and may partly explain why explain why they continue to smoke, even though doing so could permanently damage their airways and increase their risk of having an asthma attack.'