Survey on the Impact of Multimorbidity on Patients with Severe Asthma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Identifying the Burden and Impact of Comorbidities and Multimorbidity on People with Difficult-to-Treat/ Severe Asthma – Patient Survey
IRAS ID
351180
Contact name
Ben Ainsworth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 30 days
Research summary
Difficult-to-treat asthma is a type of asthma that can be really hard to manage. This happens when other health issues (called comorbidities), not taking medications properly, or using inhalers incorrectly make asthma control tougher. It affects about 20% of people with asthma, which is actually more common than just having severe asthma on its own.
Recent studies from Europe found that only about 12-21% of people with challenging asthma have severe asthma that doesn’t respond to treatment. This shows that many people with asthma also deal with other health problems, which can add to their overall health challenges.
When we talk about “multimorbidity,” we mean having two or more health issues at the same time, where none of them is more important than the others. To really understand how these different issues impact asthma, we need to pay more attention to the combined effects of all these conditions.
This study aims to find out how common other health issues (comorbidities) are in people with severe asthma and how these issues affect their health. The goal is to help healthcare providers recognize the broader needs of individuals with severe asthma and to encourage more comprehensive treatment approaches.
The specific objectives of the study are:
1. To determine how common multimorbidity (having multiple health issues) and specific coexisting conditions are among patients with severe or difficult asthma based on their own reports.
2. To measure how multimorbidity impacts the health and quality of life of these patients.
3. To investigate what kind of care and support patients with severe or difficult asthma feel they need.REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/SW/0052
Date of REC Opinion
8 May 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion