Asthma WA says it aims to inspire and empower people to live their best quality of life with the correct education around asthma.
The theme for World Asthma Day this year is Asthma Education Empowers.
According to the most recent update from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there were just under 2.8 million people with asthma in Australia. Around 237,000 of those people live in Western Australia, says Asthma WA.
“Education is empowerment, if you know how to manage your asthma and you know your correct diagnosis, it’s going to lead to a better quality of life,” says Chief Executive Officer of Asthma WA, Anne Hallam.
Joshua Luckett suffers from severe activity-induced asthma and struggled with it for years before getting a diagnosis.
“It used to be quite impactful before I got properly diagnosed, I’d find myself pretty short of breath quite often,” he says.
Mr Luckett says he thinks there is a stigma around asthma, particularly among younger people.
“It gives the impression that your unfit which can be embarrassing,” he says.
“Correct diagnosis and correct management is not happening in the community because of the misconceptions about asthma,” says Ms Hallam.
“People don’t understand how much it impacts people, what the signs are, what could be the potential triggers and how it is really unique to each person.”
Ms Hallam says there is a 55-60 per cent misdiagnosis rate of asthma in Australia, including people who do not get a diagnosis at all.
“Many people would benefit greatly from effective specialist treatments but are not referred to an asthma clinic, or at least not in a timely fashion,” says respiratory physician Dr John Blakey.
Dr Blakey is a Curtin University academic and a member of the asthma team at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital.
Dr Blakey says the team has created new initiatives that are combating the current issues with asthma diagnosis.
“These include using the body’s electricity to understand airflow in the lungs, a novel probe that can measure muscle thickness in the air tube walls, and new non-steroid medicines,” he says.
“Looking to the future, we also have studies running that explore new ways of assessing and treating asthma.”