The relationship between symptoms and lung function in asthma
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploring the relationship between symptoms and lung function in asthma
IRAS ID
216046
Contact name
Kyle Pattinson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Oxford University
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 28 days
Research summary
Approximately 10-15% of people in the UK suffer from asthma, with an annual cost to the NHS of ~£1 billion. Symptoms can typically be triggered by a variety of stimuli such as dust or pollen. However, for some people, psychological stress may trigger or exacerbate symptoms, suggesting that asthma may be linked in a complex manner to emotional processing. Discordance between asthma symptoms and clinical measures is well known but poorly understood.
In this project we seek to better understand symptom perception in people with asthma. To do this we will take self-reported measures of anxiety and depression and correlate these with the perception of breathlessness and measures of attention, assessed via computer-based tasks and a breathing sensitivity test. We will compare the responses of healthy volunteers with asthma participants to assess behavioural traits particular to asthma participants. We will then stratify the asthma group into discordant and normal perceivers to determine the drivers of this perceptual difference.
Our participants will be recruited from online databases of asthma volunteers and via posters placed in the community and online media.
Participants with will be invited to attend one session, held at the John Radcliffe Hospital. Healthy volunteers, who do not have asthma, will also be recruited via posters and online media.
In this 2-hour session we will ask participants to complete a set of questionnaires, provide a small blood sample and take part in some behavioural tasks. The behavioural tasks will include computer based reaction time tasks and a measure of breathing sensitivity. Both healthy and asthmatic volunteers will take part in a lung function test involving the administration Salbutamol
This study will give us a much more detailed understanding of the links between stress and asthma and will be instrumental in the design of future work.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EM/0107
Date of REC Opinion
6 Apr 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion