Study to improve symptom awareness

Asthma sufferers who have difficulty recognising the early warning signs of an attack are being targeted by a new RMIT University study.

About one in five asthmatics experience problems identifying the severity of asthma symptoms including shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing and chest tightness, and behavioural and environmental factors that may trigger an attack, such as exercise or dust.

Research shows that these individuals are at higher risk of inappropriate medication use, life-threatening asthma attacks and death.

RMIT PhD candidate Antoni Centofanti said uncertainty about asthma symptoms was one of the major reasons for emergency department presentations.

“While asthma self-management guidelines recommend regular objective monitoring with portable lung-function meters, long-term compliance is low,” Mr Centofanti said.

“However, this study will investigate whether portable meters are useful for training asthmatics to perceive symptoms more accurately – an approach that has proven successful with other illnesses, such as diabetes.

“Symptom perception training has the potential to improve the way asthma is self-managed in the community, and to reduce the high mortality rate in Australia where asthma is the most common chronic disease and affects 12 per cent of the population.”