Abstract
We conducted a large global survey, Still Fighting for Breath, in patients with severe persistent asthma, 10 years after the Fighting for Breath survey to assess the impact of disease on patients' lives and to determine if control and management have changed in recent years.
Data were collected from 1333 adults (aged >18 years) and caregivers of children (aged 6–17 years) with severe persistent asthma from nine countries through an online survey conducted in 2016 by GfK.
A decade after the first survey, our results showed that the impact of severe asthma has not changed significantly and a high proportion of patients with severe asthma remain inadequately controlled. A large discrepancy was observed between the proportion of patients who perceived their asthma to be well controlled (42%) and the proportion of patients who reported to be well controlled as per the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) assessment (6%). Although most patients perceived their asthma to be controlled, many experienced frequent symptoms that affected their daily lives.
Thus, there is a need for improved management (support and strategies) of patients with severe persistent asthma and improved coordination of efforts that would enable these patients to achieve better disease control.
Abstract
There is a need for improved management of patients with severe persistent asthma to achieve better disease control http://ow.ly/rv5K30mQdGG
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: P. Katsaounou reports an ERS fellowship at Novartis, during the conduct of the study; and personal fees from GSK, Chiesi, Menarini, Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: M. Odemyr reports grants from AirLiquide Healthcare, grants from ALK Abellò, grants from AstraZeneca, grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, grants from Chiesi, grants from GSK, grants from Novartis, grants from TEVA, grants from Regeneron, grants from SigAirHandling, grants from Stallergenes, and grants from Sanofi Genzyme, outside the submitted work; and is Vice President of the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association, who receives no funds from companies in the pharmaceutical sector. M. Odemyr is also President of the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations (EFA) who receives unrestricted core and project funding from corporate sources, in addition to membership fees and EU project funding. M. Odemyr is a volunteer and receives no remuneration. EFA develops sustainable corporate partnership with funders where both remain independent and fosters transparency. The EFA Code of Ethics and Framework for Sustainable Partnership are available at www.efanet.org as well as the annual accounts 2017 (www.efanet.org/annual-report/2017/financials/transparency-and-acknowledgements).
Conflict of interest: O. Spranger has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: M. Hyland reports grants and personal fees from Novartis, grants from AstraZenneca, and personal fees from GSK, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: C. Kroegel has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: R. Gore reports nonfinancial support from Novartis UK, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: F. Menzella has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: M. Morais-Almeida has nothing to disclose.
Conflict of interest: M. Gasser reports that Novartis funded the market research survey conducted by GfK Switzerland, during the conduct of the study.
Conflict of interest: I. Kasujee is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG.
Conflict of interest: C. Domingo Ribas reports personal fees from Novartis, personal fees from GSK, personal fees from Sanofi, from AstraZeneca, from ALK, and personal fees and other support from Menarini, from Orion, outside the submitted work.
Conflict of interest: L. Garcia Conde is an employee of Novartis Pharma AG.
Support statement: The study was funded by Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received May 29, 2018.
- Accepted October 26, 2018.
- Copyright ©ERS 2018
This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Licence 4.0.