Fourfold rise in asthma over 25 years, conference is told

Asthma accounts for more than one quarter of GP referrals to the respiratory unit at Dublin's Tallaght Hopsital, according to a new study presented to the Fine Gael conference on Saturday.

Of an estimated 7,500 referrals each year, 2,181 are for asthma, 2,328 for chronic bronchitis, 1,592 for lower respiratory tract infection, 1,004 for pneumonia and the remainder for cancer and TB investigation.

The study was presented by one of its authors, Dr Stephen Lane, a consultant respiratory physician at the hospital. Dr Lane warned of a dramatic increase in the incidence of the condition. "Asthma has risen fourfold in the last 25 years, and Ireland has now the fourth-highest prevalence in the world, preceded by Australia, New Zealand and the UK," he said.

Some 149 GPs in the Tallaght area were surveyed for the study, which emphasised the need to develop formal links between doctors and the hospital's respiratory unit to tackle the problem in a more co-ordinated fashion.

The study found that on average, every doctor saw 11 asthma patients each fortnight in their clinics, and referred nine such patients each year to hospital.

Dr Lane noted that hospital admissions for acute asthma episodes had decreased in recent years, along with asthma-related deaths. However, the number of people asthma affected had risen sharply, to about one in seven children and one in 20 adults.

In more than 99 per cent of cases, he said, the condition was controllable and even treatable through use of drugs and inhalers. Yet there was a high rate of non-compliance, with one study showing that just 15 per cent of patients took their medication for 80 per cent of the days they should have.

"Some local questions need to be addressed so that we can find out why it is so under-treated." One such question, he said, was whether asthma should be classified as a long-term illness. Another was whether the Government's drug budgeting scheme, which allowed families a maximum of £42 each week to cover the cost of all medication, was sufficient.