Foreword - World Asthma Day 2024

Today is World Asthma Day, serving as a timely reminder of one of the most common chronic conditions in Australia. Asthma stands as the leading cause of disease burden in children, yet it is often perceived as trivial. It contributes substantially to disruption of education, physical activity and employment, and disproportionately affects people living in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas and Indigenous communities. Despite this, asthma often tends to be overlooked in Australia, partly because of the ready availability of over-the-counter short-acting bronchodilators.

Many patients with asthma live with frequent symptoms, disturbed sleep and difficulty exercising, sometimes assuming that this is an inevitable part of their asthma, or that it is because they are overweight or a smoker. Many are reassured by the quick relief of a blue puffer that allows them to get back to what they were doing, but that doesn’t treat the underlying problem or prevent them from having attacks. For these reasons, many patients don’t discuss their asthma with their GP, or understand that their asthma can be dramatically improved by often simple interventions.

The theme of World Asthma Day 2024 is ‘Asthma Education Empowers: Information is Key’. To align with that theme, Medicine Today and Respiratory Medicine Today have worked with authors to update and compile a selection of articles on asthma from their archives. This outstanding collection offers guidance on asthma in young children and in adolescents, severe asthma, stress-induced asthma, asthma in pregnancy, the asthma-COPD overlap, inhaler devices for asthma and oral corticosteroid stewardship.

As you read the articles, look out for the multiple practical resources that they provide for health professionals and for their patients, often making use of electronic tools and apps to engage patients and streamline the management of asthma and its comorbidities. Asthma education empowers doctors to engage with their patients, and patients to engage with their doctor, nurse and/or pharmacist about their asthma management, to improve outcomes and reduce the burden of living with asthma. 

World Asthma Day is also the date for the launch of the 2024 update of the Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention, available here.

A selection of peer reviewed clinical reading from the Medicine Today Group journals

The GINA 2024 report

Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention
The 2024 update of the Global Strategy for Asthma Management and Prevention incorporates new scientific information about asthma based on a review of recent scientific literature by an international panel of experts on the GINA Science Committee. This comprehensive and practical resource about one of the most common chronic lung diseases worldwide contains extensive citations from the scientific literature and forms the basis for other GINA documents and programs.

Access the just released 2024 report GINA website here: www.ginasthma.org/reports

Additional resources will be added over coming weeks.

UPDATED ONLINE MAY 2024
Inhaler therapy for asthma

Debbie Rigby
Despite the widespread use of asthma control guidelines and a growing number of available inhaler devices and active ingredients for controlling symptoms, many people with asthma have inadequately controlled disease. Here's an overview of inhaler therapy available in Australia for asthma control and advice on their appropriate selection and correct technique for use.  

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Severe asthma: what’s new in management

Alice Crawford, John D. Blakey, Li Ping Chung
Severe asthma is a rapidly evolving area of medicine. There have been recent advances in the model of clinical care and there is the promise of new technologies for the management of severe asthma. In addition, our increased understanding of asthma pathophysiology is moving us towards more effective treatment and helping to protect patients from accruing lung damage and harm from use of oral corticosteroids.   READ MORE

Asthma-COPD overlap: implications for patient management

Alistair Cook, Jodie Simpson, Peter Wark
The term asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) reflects the overlapping aetiologies and clinical features of asthma and COPD and the large cohort of patients who demonstrate features of both. Because there is no universally accepted definition of ACO, reliable data on managing patients exhibiting ACO are lacking. An approach to treating chronic airways disease that targets identifiable clinical traits rather than the disease label is increasingly recommended.   READ MORE

ONLINE FIRST
Beyond the wheeze: a fresh look at adolescent asthma

Vikram Palit, Geshani Jayasuriya, Susan Towns
Adolescents with asthma present a unique set of challenges due to their development stage, physiological changes and the emergence of psychosocial factors that can impact management. Red flags include poor asthma control, nonadherence, under-recognition of symptoms, psychosocial stressors, risk-taking behaviours and communication barriers. GPs play a key role in the assessment and management of young people with asthma.   READ MORE

UPDATED ONLINE MAY 2024
Paediatric asthma: update on the stepwise management approach

Stuart Haggie, Paul D. Robinson
Asthma deaths remain highly preventable, and better recognition of at-risk groups and improved adherence to current management guidelines, such as those outlined in the latest version of the Australian Asthma Handbook, are crucial to efforts to reduce asthma mortality. The latest version of the handbook included a major update to evidence and advice on managing asthma in infants and children and outlined age-specific aspects that should be considered.  READ MORE

Oral corticosteroid stewardship in asthma: an urgent issue

John Politis, Philip Bardin, John Blakey
Oral corticosteroid treatment (OCS) for asthma is widely used and effective. However, this long-standing practice requires consideration, given the evidence supporting alternative successful treatments and more recent identification of key dose thresholds for the development of OCS-associated side effects.   READ MORE

Stress-induced asthma – key insights for prevention and management

Sarah A. Hiles, Vanessa L. Clark, Peter G. Gibson, Vanessa M. McDonald
Review your knowledge on the importance of stress as a trigger for asthma. People with stress-induced asthma may benefit from learning skills to manage an acute stress reaction, improving coping skills to reduce stress levels in the long term, and managing comorbidities that affect this type of asthma.   READ MORE

CPD COMPLETE 1.5 HOURS

Managing asthma in pregnancy: new research and resources for GPs

Vanessa E. Murphy, Megan E. Jensen
Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease affecting pregnant women, and many will be managed by their GP at some point during their pregnancy. The GP can play a pivotal role in education, assessment and managing risk factors, thereby optimising asthma management and health outcomes for mother and child.
READ MORE

COMING SOON

Immunotherapy in patients with asthma and allergic rhinitis: what is its role?

Raymond Mullins

GINA 2024: a summary of the report

Led by Helen Reddel