'My Asthma Story'
Research type
Research Study
Full title
'My Asthma Story': Crowdsourcing methods to identify the strategies people with asthma use to prevent exacerbations.
IRAS ID
186577
Contact name
Aziz Sheikh
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Asthma is a common respiratory condition which inflames and narrows the airways resulting in symptoms such as coughing, chest tightness, wheezing and shortness of breath. If symptoms get worse, often referred to as an exacerbation or asthma attack, this can lead to hospitalisation and can sometimes be fatal.
Asthma can be triggered by a range of factors (e.g. pollen, house dust mites, pollution). As a result, people with asthma can experience a wide variation of asthma symptoms as well as differences in how they respond to treatment. People with asthma are often the best expert in regards to their own particular triggers as well as ways of coping with asthma.
We intend to tap into existing asthma networks and social media platforms to engage with people affected by asthma to gain further insight into: a) what people currently do to keep their asthma under control and prevent exacerbations, and b) their ideas for novel ways of managing asthma.
We plan to use crowdsourcing methods, including asking participants to post comments on Facebook and to contribute stories via YouTube and Flipagram, as well as more traditional questionnaire methods (both paper and online) to gather potential asthma research ideas from people affected by asthma and to explore the use of how crowdsourcing methods could complement the use of more traditional research methods.We will produce a list of ideas and experiences to prevent or reduce asthma attacks and use this to inform ideas for future research projects within the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research (AUKCAR).
REC name
South East Scotland REC 02
REC reference
15/SS/0200
Date of REC Opinion
30 Oct 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion