By Aaron Cordy
SHORTNESS of breath, coughing, wheezing and tightness in the chest are all signs of asthma. It’s estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the population has asthma, which is higher in children. Many people don’t get diagnosed despite having asthma, because they misread the symptoms.
Shepparton GP and Senior Lecturer with the Department of Rural Health at the University of Melbourne, Dr Jimmy Tseng, is conducting a research project into managing asthma in high school children. Studies have shown that most people with asthma have an outdated asthma plan, if they have one at all.
“The biggest hurdle we have is people think, ‘Oh, I can just get some Ventolin over the counter.’ They don’t think it’s actually something to worry about, but people do still have serious outcomes from this, and we’re trying to minimise that,” said Dr Tseng.
“One of the issues is that last few years, there have been changes in terms of how to manage asthma, from 12 years onwards, it is quite different to what we used to do. Nowadays, in terms of just owning a blue puffer, we actually recommend the red puffer at the first slide. Everyone should be either on the red puffer by themselves, or a combination with a preventer, which most people don’t take anyway. From my perspective, everyone should change to a red puffer.”
The blue inhalers are relievers, which provide quick relief by relaxing airway muscles. Red ones are preventers that use steroids to reduce inflammation long-term and should be taken daily. There are also combination inhalers that mix both.
Research has shown that asthma rates are higher in regional Australia for children, with Victoria second to NSW in the number of child asthma hotspots.
A GP at Princess Park Clinic, Dr Tseng, works as part of nine school-based clinics, including two with Doctors in Secondary Schools program. He’s seen many children with asthma whose treatment plans are out of date or ineffective.
“The issue is that a lot of times this is a slight cough, most don’t get bothered by it, and they don’t realise that they have asthma to begin with. The problem is when it starts to get worse, they might go buy Ventolin, but that’s the wrong treatment, because the treatment really should be the red puffer nowadays,” said Dr Tseng.
“If they do use the Ventolin and it continues to get worse, they use more and more of it. If they need to go to hospital after like two days of using heaps of Ventolin, our rescue medication is to use Ventolin at the hospital. And that stops working.
“All the deaths and problems that we have with asthma are people who don’t see their doctors for asthma treatment and just keep using lots of Ventolin. It’s the reasons why we worry about using Ventolin by itself.”
Dr Tseng says that studies show everyone with asthma, especially secondary school children, should have an asthma plan and review it once a year with their GP to prevent emergency presentations and deaths.
“If children do have asthma, they should be actually updating their medication to align with the best practice and the guidelines,” said Dr Tseng.
