Asthma: Global Impact, Australian Burden, and Prevention Strategies

This report delves into asthma as a significant chronic condition, exploring its global and Australian burden. It highlights the public health significance of asthma, examining its determinants such as social and environmental factors, and individual risk factors including family history, allergies, and smoking. The report outlines frameworks for asthma prevention, emphasizing the importance of identifying triggers, proper medication usage, tracking early signs, and effective management plans. It reviews the advantages and disadvantages of each prevention method, providing a comprehensive overview of asthma management and control strategies. The report concludes that asthma is a major health concern worldwide, particularly in Australia, and underscores the need for effective prevention and management strategies to mitigate its impact on individuals and communities.

Health Issue as a Chronic
Condition

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION:..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY:.................................................................................................................................1
Burden of asthma at global level............................................................................................1
Burden of asthma in Australia................................................................................................4
Public health significance.......................................................................................................5
Determinants ..........................................................................................................................5
Individual risk factors.............................................................................................................6
Description of a framework commonly used for the preventing asthma...............................7
Review of framework when it is applied in preventing asthma.............................................8
CONCLUSION:...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION:
In 21st century people are highly suffering from various chronicle disease. This is because
of change in atmosphere and quality of life. Also, the basic health care facilities are not been
provided to poor people. This is the reason of increasing in major diseases. Asthma is common
problem in adults and children (Stewart, & Wild, (2017)). It is because of rise in pollution level
and adverse environment. This assignment will throw light on how asthma is a major concern of
issue in Australia and other countries. Also, why it is a public health significance and its
determinants. Moreover, what are risk factors involved and prevention methods are discussed.
MAIN BODY:
Chronic conditions impacts the life of individual for a long term. They occur with
persistent effects. It reduces people's quality of life by causing major consequences. Chronic
disease are increasing rapidly and must be a priority for action in the health sector. The most
common chronic disease that is found in adults and children is Asthma. It is a complex gene
interaction with environment ( Bauer, & et..al. (2014)). In this it becomes difficult to breath
resulting in chest pain. This can be recovered by
Burden of asthma at global level
There are many people suffering from asthma all around the world. It is increasing day by
day due to rise in pollution level. It is expected that 334 million people are suffering from this
disease. This data was undertaken in 2010 by global burden of disease study (GBD). Moreover,
it is assumed that data recovered from this is reduced to 235 million between 2011 to 2014.
Besides this, according to survey conducted by International Study of Asthma and Allergies in
Childhood (ISAAC) it was found that about 14 % children are having asthma symptoms (Prince,
& et..al (2015)). In this research sample of 798685 children of age group 13-14 years in 97
countries were analysed.(fig 1) According to survey done by World Health organisation (WHO)
of people aged between 18-45 it showed that 4.5 % people are taking treatment of asthma and
8.6 % have experience symptoms of asthma in 12 months. (fig 2) The overall result was that the
highest ratio was observed in Australia, Brazil, etc.
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Illustration 1: Figure 1

This reflects both a paucity of survey data and the greater difficulty of distinguishing asthma
from other respiratory conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in
older age groups.
According to ISSAC ratio of asthma people has changed a little and has declined in
developed countries.
There has been a high impact on asthma in premature death and disability. It is because
of children between age of 10-14 and elder people 75-79 are mostly impacted. On the other hand
people aged 30-34 have lowest impact (.Chiauzzi, Rodarte & DasMahapatra, (2015) But, the
difference in gender is increasing with age. GBD shows the measure of health loss in asthma.
(fig 3). for this they have used two components that are life lost due to premature death and life
lived with disability. This can be seen in fig 5. countries that are having a burden of asthma are
Australia, New Zealand, Africa, etc. People are identified with symptoms of Asthma.
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Illustration 2: Figure 2

Burden of asthma in Australia
In Australia around 2.5 million people are suffering from asthma. It is more common in
males aged between 0-14 and in females it is more than 15. The indigenous people are more
affected by this than other people (Moncayo & Silveira, (2017)) Old age people are commonly
affected in this category. Besides this, people living in regional areas are more suffering from
this disease than people living in cities. Moreover, 20 % people above age of 15 have a proper
asthma plan. Also, 1 out of 9 Australians have asthma.
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Public health significance
Hospitals and care centres plays a crucial role in providing proper care facilities to
asthma people. They develop vaccines and methods of medication. Also, they help people in
providing medication and recovering from asthma (Zwar, & et..al. (2017)). Moreover, they make
aware people about various symptoms by doing campaigns and seminars. Professionals and
doctors provide support to people by identifying symptoms and providing medication.
Determinants
There are some determinants of asthma that leads to rise in symptoms in people.
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Illustration 3: figure 4

Social determinant- It means the quality of life of people in their society. It shows that where
people are living and what health facilities are provided to them. Also, what are the surrounding
factors that is leading to develop symptoms of asthma.
Environmental determinant- It is related to environment condition of a particular area or
region. It shows that how much environment is having an impact on people living in that area.
Increase in pollution level will increase the risk of developing asthma in people.
Individual risk factors
Asthma can develop in a person from childhood. It consists of some factors that shows
symptoms of asthma. Person may have a respiratory infection or allergy. Along with this, it
might have exposed some chemical reactions or dust at workplace. These factors lead to cause
asthma. It puts the individual at risk (Collins, & et..al. (2015)). But there are certain more risk
involved in asthma. These are described as below:-
Family history – It is the fist risk factor that can lead to cause asthma. If a family person is
having asthma they there are more chances of developing asthma. The chances may be up to 3
to 6 times.
Viral respiratory infection- It occurs due to some viral infection or respiratory problems in
childhood. It can cause wheezing that can lead to asthma. Mostly children are more exposed to
have these infections or problems.
Allergies- It is a factor that causes asthma. In this allergy such as atopic dermatitis (eczema) or
allergic rhinitis (hay fever) is a risk factor (Eldredge, & et..al. (2016).
Smoking- Those people who don smoking are having a high risk of developing asthma. They
smoke or air generated from cigarette affects individual respiratory system. It makes him
difficult to breathe. It also includes mothers who have smoked during or before pregnancy.
Occupational exposures- It is related to work place where individual is working. It consists of
environment conditions of workplace that can causes asthma symptoms. It may occur due to
dust, chemical fumes and vapour, etc. These factors affects an individual physical health and
develops asthma (Banerjee, (2015).
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Air pollution – It is the most common factor that causes asthma. Its main component is smog.
Generally, it occurs in urban areas where most of the people lives. It is having a high risk factor
for developing asthma.
Obesity- It is related to physical health of individual. Usually it happens in children and adults
who are overweight or obese. They are generally at a higher risk of having asthma. Obese
patients refers to those who takes more medication and are unable tom control asthma than
overweight patients.
Description of a framework commonly used for the preventing asthma
Asthma can be prevented by following certain measures. It will help in developing some
methods or procedures which can be used to prevent asthma (Moncayo, & Silveira, (2017).
There are several frameworks that can be followed :-
Identify asthma triggers and minimise contact with them-
Asthma attacks can be prevented by identifying asthma triggers. For this person must
know and learn about these triggers. This will help in minimising those and reducing the
symptoms of asthma. Along with this, person must not come in contact with those triggers.
These triggers are cigarette smoke, pollution, industrial dust, etc. besides this, it must be
consulted with a doctor on how to prevent them. It will be useful in preventing of allergy
symptoms.
Taking asthma medication properly-
The medicines of asthma is generally taken through a machine known as nebulizer that
consists a small device called metered dose inhaler (Stewart, & Wild, (2017) Taking medication
properly will help in reducing asthma. For taking this medicine doctors or nurses help can be
taken. If medication is not taken properly it can lead to worse condition of patient. It may result
in death.
Tracking early signs of asthma-
By tracking early signs of asthma effective measures can be taken so that it may not
result in serious condition. These signs are chest tightness, coughing, difficulty in breathing, etc.
If in particular time these signs are noticed than measures can be taken to stop them from
growing. For this a device is used known as peak flow meter (Chiauzzi, Rodarte &
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DasMahapatra, (2015). It helps in detecting the symptoms of asthma. By analysing the result of
device stage of asthma can be identified. It is divided into three zones. When it shows green that
means safe, yellow means caution and red means emergency. It will help in developing a plan on
what medicines have to be taken.
Taking effective measures during asthma-
An effective management plan must be developed so that proper medication can be taken
at right time. This will
Limiting dust exposure- In this children must be kept away from dust areas. They should not be
sent ton play in rooms with a lot of dust particles. It will help in keeping person safe (Collins, &
et..al. (2015)
Protecting patient from smoke-
By following the above measures' asthma can be prevented. It will help in keeping the
patient away from things that can lead to develop symptoms of asthma. Also, it will show what
an individual have to do when he or she has found symptoms of asthma (Zwar, & et..al. (2017)
Moreover, by taking medication on time a person can be recovered from disease.
Review of framework when it is applied in preventing asthma
By following the framework it is reviewed that there are some pros and cons of each
prevention method. This is as follows:-
Identify asthma triggers and minimise contact with them
It best advantage is by identifying symptoms it becomes easy to prevent asthma. Once, it
is known that what are triggers than accordingly measures can be taken.
Sometimes it becomes difficult to identify what are the triggers of asthma. It is because a
person may affect from different kind of symptoms related to disease. Also, if a person is having
allergy at work place then the environment can not be changed for that person (Banerjee, (2015).
Taking asthma medication properly-
By following this framework a person can be easily prevented from disease. This will be
easy in getting proper care at tight time. There is no need to apply different methods
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Sometimes it may not help properly to prevent from asthma. This is because after taking
medication a person might again develop disease.
Tracking early signs of asthma
Its benefit is it will help in identifying signs of asthma in early stage. By this measures
can be taken to prevent them to develop.
But its drawback is if a person shows a little signs of asthma then taking unnecessary
medicines will affect his health.
CONCLUSION:
From this report it is concluded that asthma is a burden to both globally and locally. It is
highly affecting the people of Australia. Chronic conditions impacts the life of individual for a
long term. They occur with persistent effects. It reduces people's quality of life by causing major
consequences. There are many people suffering from asthma all around the world. It is
increasing day by day due to rise in pollution level. Asthma can develop in a person from
childhood. It consists of some factors that shows symptoms of asthma. There are some risk
factors associated with asthma such as Viral respiratory infection, air pollution, allergies, etc.
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REFERENCES:
Books and journals:
Banerjee, S. (2015). Multimorbidity—older adults need health care that can count past one. The
Lancet/385(9968). 587-589.
Bauer, & et..al. (2014). Prevention of chronic disease in the 21st century: elimination of the
leading preventable causes of premature death and disability in the USA. The
Lancet.384(9937). 45-52.
Chiauzzi, E., Rodarte, C., & DasMahapatra, P. (2015). Patient-centered activity monitoring in
the self-management of chronic health conditions. BMC medicine.13(1). 77.
Collins, & et..al. (2015). United States Renal Data System public health surveillance of chronic
kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. Kidney international supplements.5(1). 2-7.
Eldredge, & et..al. (2016). Planning health promotion programs: an intervention mapping
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Moncayo, Á., & Silveira, A. C. (2017). Current epidemiological trends of Chagas disease in
Latin America and future challenges: epidemiology, surveillance, and health policies** This
paper did not receive any financial support. In American Trypanosomiasis Chagas Disease
(Second Edition) (pp. 59-88).
Prince, & et..al (2015). The burden of disease in older people and implications for health policy
and practice. The Lancet.385(9967). 549-562.
Stewart, B. W. K. P., & Wild, C. P. (2017). World cancer report 2014. Health.
Zwar, & et..al. (2017). A systematic review of chronic disease management.
Online:
Asthma risk factors, 2018. [Online] Available Through: <http://www.lung.org/lung-health-and-
diseases/lung-disease-lookup/asthma/asthma-symptoms-causes-risk-factors/asthma-risk-
factors.html>
Burden of asthma in Australia, 2001. [Online] Available Through: <
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11548080>
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