Myth-Busting Mondays: How often are people with Asthma hospitalised in the UK?
Poll
How often are people with Asthma hospitalised in the UK?
It's world Asthma awareness day tomorrow (03/05/16) and we'd like to hear if you have experience with Asthma, or how much you know about it!
"Asthma is a common long-term condition that can cause coughing, wheezing, chest tightness and breathlessness." Find out more about Asthma here.
This week's questions is: How often are people with Asthma hospitalised in the UK?
Use the poll to cast your vote! Answers will be released tomorrow.
As someone with mild asthma, even the blue inhalers are not enough to control it. I use the brown preventative inhalers to control shortness of breath. Often triggers such as pollen and dust can exacerbate symptoms of Asthma. It is common to associate asthma with obesity or being unfit, but I know many, including myself, who do not fit into this stereotype.
Let us know about your experiences! Please note: you can post anonymously in this thread
For those new to the thread, the answer is:
Thanks to furryface for the idea of a thread on Asthma and Asthma hospitalisations!
"Asthma is a common long-term condition that can cause coughing, wheezing, chest tightness and breathlessness." Find out more about Asthma here.
This week's questions is: How often are people with Asthma hospitalised in the UK?
Use the poll to cast your vote! Answers will be released tomorrow.
As someone with mild asthma, even the blue inhalers are not enough to control it. I use the brown preventative inhalers to control shortness of breath. Often triggers such as pollen and dust can exacerbate symptoms of Asthma. It is common to associate asthma with obesity or being unfit, but I know many, including myself, who do not fit into this stereotype.
Let us know about your experiences! Please note: you can post anonymously in this thread
For those new to the thread, the answer is:
Spoiler
Thanks to furryface for the idea of a thread on Asthma and Asthma hospitalisations!
(edited 7 years ago)
Scroll to see replies
Those numbers are really high! Quite frightening really.
I have asthma. It was originally recorded in my medical notes (because that's when I noticed problems) as exercised induced asthma. This is a pretty common problem amongst people who run or do similar sports.
Anyway, it took them several months to find something that really worked. I currently take the pink one. I moved. I changed GP and when you change GP, they ask about your family history. I mentioned that mum and my sister both have asthma too. I found at this point, I have other triggers. I was told there's actually a genetic link and that's most likely my problem. It just appeared to decide to rear it's ugly head after running.
That was January 2014. It took them until May 2014 to find something that worked. Since then, I've had a few days where I've had it quite bad; but not severe enough for me to need to go to hospital. It seems that for me, it's things like certain medication, (or rather, a combination) smoke, the weather, colds, sprays, (hairspray, dry shampoo, deodorant, etc) exercise and (no, he doesn't know this!) a certain persons text messages...
I have asthma. It was originally recorded in my medical notes (because that's when I noticed problems) as exercised induced asthma. This is a pretty common problem amongst people who run or do similar sports.
Anyway, it took them several months to find something that really worked. I currently take the pink one. I moved. I changed GP and when you change GP, they ask about your family history. I mentioned that mum and my sister both have asthma too. I found at this point, I have other triggers. I was told there's actually a genetic link and that's most likely my problem. It just appeared to decide to rear it's ugly head after running.
That was January 2014. It took them until May 2014 to find something that worked. Since then, I've had a few days where I've had it quite bad; but not severe enough for me to need to go to hospital. It seems that for me, it's things like certain medication, (or rather, a combination) smoke, the weather, colds, sprays, (hairspray, dry shampoo, deodorant, etc) exercise and (no, he doesn't know this!) a certain persons text messages...
Are you counting a&e trips in that?
I ve been lucky as since my teen years my asthma is perfectly controlled and I ve only had the one asthma attack.
I believe mine is down to genetics and my parents being smokers, my triggers are mostly extreme stress and dust and bouts of illness.
I ve been lucky as since my teen years my asthma is perfectly controlled and I ve only had the one asthma attack.
I believe mine is down to genetics and my parents being smokers, my triggers are mostly extreme stress and dust and bouts of illness.
Being hospitalised every 6 minutes would be extremely annoying!
I've had asthma since I was 16 - triggered off by a bout of bronchitis but I reckon even before that I'd had mild symptoms and not associated them with asthma. My condition is mild - I have a blue inhaler which I use with a spacer and it normally does the job when I need it.
I do have an almost constant cough, normally most apparent in the Winter because the cold is a big trigger - other triggers are animal fur, smoke, dust, aerosols, dairy products and laughing (honestly, I don't know what that's about but laughing really sets it off!). I also have anaemia and when that is bad, obviously the breathlessness is much worse.
I think it could be better controlled - I've not been overly impressed with the care I've received - haven't had a peak flow done since diagnosis and I really think I need a preventer inhaler too (mostly because I hate taking the reliever, salbutamol really makes me tremor!).
I do have an almost constant cough, normally most apparent in the Winter because the cold is a big trigger - other triggers are animal fur, smoke, dust, aerosols, dairy products and laughing (honestly, I don't know what that's about but laughing really sets it off!). I also have anaemia and when that is bad, obviously the breathlessness is much worse.
I think it could be better controlled - I've not been overly impressed with the care I've received - haven't had a peak flow done since diagnosis and I really think I need a preventer inhaler too (mostly because I hate taking the reliever, salbutamol really makes me tremor!).
Original post by Bethaaaaany
laughing (honestly, I don't know what that's about but laughing really sets it off!).
This is a problem for me as well.
I really think I need a preventer inhaler too (mostly because I hate taking the reliever, salbutamol really makes me tremor!).
My sister has the same problem. They changed the type of blue inhaler she uses, which helps.
I've had asthma since I was little, it was fairly mild until I was around 17 and then became a lot more severe. I'm currently on five lots of medication for it which keeps me relatively stable but hospital visits still aren't that uncommon. It's far better than it was though, at one point I was having a couple of attacks a day and in and out of hospital almost constantly.
Unusually I'm in the small proportion of people that don't wheeze and most of the time don't cough either which has confused a lot of doctors over the years. Trigger-wise I have loads which affect me in different ways but the worst at the moment seems to be air pressure as my medication is nowhere near as effective for it. That's resulted in several A&E trips this winter!
Make a GP appointment for it, according to asthma UK you should have a preventer if you use your reliever three times a week or more which it sounds like you do or could be anyway. In theory you should have a review every six to twelve months but in my experience these are pretty useless, probably depends on the individual asthma nurse though at your surgery. And yeah laughing is a problem for a lot of people I think!
Unusually I'm in the small proportion of people that don't wheeze and most of the time don't cough either which has confused a lot of doctors over the years. Trigger-wise I have loads which affect me in different ways but the worst at the moment seems to be air pressure as my medication is nowhere near as effective for it. That's resulted in several A&E trips this winter!
Original post by Bethaaaaany
I've had asthma since I was 16 - triggered off by a bout of bronchitis but I reckon even before that I'd had mild symptoms and not associated them with asthma. My condition is mild - I have a blue inhaler which I use with a spacer and it normally does the job when I need it.
I do have an almost constant cough, normally most apparent in the Winter because the cold is a big trigger - other triggers are animal fur, smoke, dust, aerosols, dairy products and laughing (honestly, I don't know what that's about but laughing really sets it off!). I also have anaemia and when that is bad, obviously the breathlessness is much worse.
I think it could be better controlled - I've not been overly impressed with the care I've received - haven't had a peak flow done since diagnosis and I really think I need a preventer inhaler too (mostly because I hate taking the reliever, salbutamol really makes me tremor!).
I do have an almost constant cough, normally most apparent in the Winter because the cold is a big trigger - other triggers are animal fur, smoke, dust, aerosols, dairy products and laughing (honestly, I don't know what that's about but laughing really sets it off!). I also have anaemia and when that is bad, obviously the breathlessness is much worse.
I think it could be better controlled - I've not been overly impressed with the care I've received - haven't had a peak flow done since diagnosis and I really think I need a preventer inhaler too (mostly because I hate taking the reliever, salbutamol really makes me tremor!).
Make a GP appointment for it, according to asthma UK you should have a preventer if you use your reliever three times a week or more which it sounds like you do or could be anyway. In theory you should have a review every six to twelve months but in my experience these are pretty useless, probably depends on the individual asthma nurse though at your surgery. And yeah laughing is a problem for a lot of people I think!
(edited 7 years ago)
I've had asthma since I was 2 and thankfully I've never been hospitalised. Mine is usually triggered by dust, sometimes it can be set off randomly, and it gets especially bad when I'm run down with a cold or something. I have a blue and brown inhaler. 
I've found that people with asthma generally either manage very well at home with minimal interventions, or seem to have constant problems and end up having frequent hospital admissions. It doesn't seem to make much of a difference how hard people try to have good control of their asthma either, which is incredibly frustrating for them.
Personally, I was misdiagnosed with asthma when I was around 11, and it took 8 years for doctors to work out that my 'asthma' was actually anxiety-related changes to my lungs. Although I was never hospitalised, I've had many, many GP visits and goodness knows how many inhalers that made no difference whatsoever. If I hadn't moved away and changed GP's, I'd probably still be getting treated for asthma. Thankfully, I'm pretty much fine now, but it is worrying how eager GP's are to label young people with coughs and wheezes as asthmatics and not consider other possible causes.
Personally, I was misdiagnosed with asthma when I was around 11, and it took 8 years for doctors to work out that my 'asthma' was actually anxiety-related changes to my lungs. Although I was never hospitalised, I've had many, many GP visits and goodness knows how many inhalers that made no difference whatsoever. If I hadn't moved away and changed GP's, I'd probably still be getting treated for asthma. Thankfully, I'm pretty much fine now, but it is worrying how eager GP's are to label young people with coughs and wheezes as asthmatics and not consider other possible causes.
Thanks for the posts! Do you think people are aware about the causes and symptoms of Asthma? Even as someone with Asthma, I didn't think about how common asthma attacks are and the need for A&E and hospitalisation is
Spoiler
Original post by BurstingBubbles
Thanks for the posts! Do you think people are aware about the causes and symptoms of Asthma? Even as someone with Asthma, I didn't think about how common asthma attacks are and the need for A&E and hospitalisation is
Spoiler
Symptoms I think but maybe not causes so much.
Its one every 8 minutes I googled it.
Original post by Observatory
Being hospitalised every 6 minutes would be extremely annoying!
I can't help thinking that it was better in the good old days when we sent children down coal mines and up chimneys. They didn't get all these lung problems in those days.
I've had asthma all my life; I had a asthma-induced seizure when I was about two years old but other than that I haven't yet had anything so serious. I've been keeping it under control with my inhalers, and I use the reliever if I can feel my breathing get difficult, but luckily it doesn't happen that often.
Some people go through much worse though and I feel lucky my asthma isn't the worst it could be.
Some people go through much worse though and I feel lucky my asthma isn't the worst it could be.
Original post by Observatory
Being hospitalised every 6 minutes would be extremely annoying!
That was my thought too, then I realised that it's yet another 'let's show we can't ask questions properly' poll!
As well as making it sound like it's talking about individual patients rather than the set of people with asthma, I suspect it's much more frequent than that: I suspect the stat being asked about ignores people with asthma going into hospital for some non-asthma reason.
I think what the question is asking is something like 'on average, there's an asthma-related hospital admission in the UK every...'
Original post by Xenon17
Its one every 8 minutes I googled it.
About 65,000 admissions a year then. With about 5% of the population - say 750,000 - having asthma to some degree, that means it could be phrased as 'more than nine in ten people with asthma are never severe enough to be admitted to hospital in any year'.
Asthma's a problem, but many of the causes are preventable, particularly smoking and air quality.
The answer is every 8 minutes! At first I wondered if this was world wide, but it's just the UK 
Source: https://www.asthma.org.uk/about/media/facts-and-statistics/
We have to consider the length of the question as that wouldn't fit as a title and most people seem to be able to understand the meaning of it as it is
Posted from TSR Mobile
Source: https://www.asthma.org.uk/about/media/facts-and-statistics/
Original post by unprinted
I think what the question is asking is something like 'on average, there's an asthma-related hospital admission in the UK every...'
I think what the question is asking is something like 'on average, there's an asthma-related hospital admission in the UK every...'
We have to consider the length of the question as that wouldn't fit as a title and most people seem to be able to understand the meaning of it as it is
Posted from TSR Mobile
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- Just looking for more information on joining the raf
- CCCU Uni Mythbusters #3 You won't make any friends
- Myths about Business degrees
- Myths about Computing degrees
- Exercise Induced Asthma
- Can I be accepted for a foundational course if I don’t meet the requirements?
- Uni Mythbusters: Professors and Academics are unapproachable.
- Do you learn to read people's minds when studying psychology?
- Mitigation circumstances reason
- NTU Podcast: Funding at university
- Living with someone who has serious asthma
- Missed conditional offer but still got into LSE
- Is it possible to be a part-time primary school teacher?
- Busting Some Popular Clearing Myths!
- Passé simple in an essay
- What's the stereotype about Scorpios?
- Bristol vs Manchester for Economics
- Universities and the EPQ: Common Questions
- Herts at the 2024 UCAS fairs
- Should I revise during year 10?
