World Asthma Day: GSK shines light on asthma patients’ perspectives

It is understood that more than 50% of patients have limited or poor control of their asthma, despite being treated for their condition.

For some, the severity of asthma limits them in performing even core functions of a day.

“I have been unable to work or care for my infant, because my asthma symptoms are so severe,” said a patient, while another maintained that: “I have to schedule everything around my lungs1.”

As asthma affects people in different ways depending on the severity of their condition, GSK has striven to keep in mind the individual needs of patients through medicines, research and services for the last 40 years.

GSK contributed to the development of the Asthma Control Test (www.asthmacontroltest.com), a simple test to help people assess their level of asthma control. Maltese patients are encouraged to take this online test which takes less than 60 seconds.

For World Asthma Day, held on Tuesday, May 5, 2015, GSK seeks to raise awareness about the real life impact of asthma on patients lives, with the theme: ‘What Asthma Means to Me’, since nobody describes the impact of asthma better than the patients themselves.

A lung shaped word chart from stories of asthma patients

In a patient interview carried out recently in the UK, asthma sufferers related their perspective of living with the disease. These stories paint a suffocating picture and, for a while, take the breath away of non-sufferers as they try to imagine what it means to be asthmatic.

“Asthma makes me aware of every breath I take”, said one patient, while another narrated, “I go to sleep and then I wake up a couple of hours later feeling tight-chested and wheezy.”

An estimated 235 million people in the world currently suffer from asthma.

“One day I was jogging and had an asthma attack. I was so scared and really believed I was going to die,” recalled an asthmatic.

Asthma affects different people in different ways depending on the severity of their condition

As asthma affects people in different ways depending on the severity of their condition, GSK strives to keep in mind the individual needs of patients through medicines, research and services for the last 40 years.

GSK contributed to the development of the Asthma Control Test (www.asthmacontroltest.com), a simple test to help people assess their level of asthma control. Maltese patients are encouraged to take this online test which takes less than 60 seconds.