A feasibility study for an asthma self-management intervention
Research type
Research Study
Full title
‘My Breathing Matters’ - feasibility study of a digital self-management programme designed to improve the quality of life people with asthma.
IRAS ID
214457
Contact name
Diana Galpin
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 31 days
Research summary
Although the UK leads the world in providing guidelines for asthma management, these have been poorly implemented and people with asthma do not receive evidence-based interventions, particularly individual action plans, which are known to impact positively on outcomes. Patient education and proactive self-management have been convincingly shown to improve clinical outcomes in asthma and have been advocated in guidelines for 20 years. People with asthma without a management plan are four times more likely to have an asthma attack needing emergency care in hospital[5]. However, a representative (Ipsos-MORI) survey carried out by Asthma UK in 2010[6] suggested that only a quarter of people with asthma in the UK have a self-management plan. Self-management in asthma can also encompass non-pharmacological interventions to improve control and empower the patient, such as breathing exercises or lifestyle changes such as smoking cessation and weight reduction (since smoking and obesity are associated with worse prognosis in asthma).
There is accumulating evidence that digital interventions (DIs) can deliver better and more efficient healthcare in the context of asthma. A recent systematic review by our group found that self-management DIs could improve asthma control and reduce asthma-related quality of life impairment but called for larger, more robust trials. We identified several existing self-management DIs for asthma, but half of these were for children, and many were not in English. While there are numerous commercial DIs for asthma, only one has been evaluated.
We have developed a digital self-management intervention using the person-based approach to support self-management in patients with asthma. This study will assess the feasibility of the intervention and trial to evaluate it (including acceptability, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness) in 80 asthma patients in primary care, in comparison to usual care (with provision of standard patient information materials produced by the charity Asthma UK).REC name
South Central - Berkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0614
Date of REC Opinion
16 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion