Asthma Management: Interactive asthma management

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects one in 10 Australian adults and children, some 2.4 million people.

Data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows asthma mortality rates in Australia increased significantly between 1979 and 1989, when it peaked at five deaths per 100,000 for both males and females.

The National Asthma Council (NAC) Australia was launched in 1989, in part as an effort to combat this alarming increase in the number of asthma-related deaths.

‘There was a realisation that the key players in the area [of asthma] needed to get together and have a concerted approach to what was, and still is today, a very high health priority for Australians,’ Professor Amanda Barnard, Chair of the Guidelines Committee for the Australian Asthma Handbook and Associate Dean (Rural Clinical School) at the Australian National University Medical School, told Good Practice. ‘There is a high incidence and prevalence in Australia and most people are managed in general practice.’

Australia’s asthma mortality rates have declined since 1989 and in 2010 it was found to contribute to 1.4 deaths per 100,000 males and 1.9 per 100,000 females.

Associate Professor Chris Hogan, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne and member of the NAC’s GP Asthma Group, has spent his career trying to help those severely affected by asthma and believes one of the keys to successfully combating the disease is helping people to have a clearer understanding of it.

‘What happens under those circumstances [when people were not well informed] is that, at that stage [1989], there was a whole range of people who were dying of asthma,’ he told Good Practice.

Downloads

Help with downloads

Asthma Management: Interactive asthma management (pdf 114KB)