The course of asthma activity: A population study
A recent asthma activity population study suggests that once you’ve been diagnosed with asthma, you’re trapped with the disease for life.
According to published reports in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology research conducted from 1993 to 2008 by scientists at Ontario’s Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) studied 613,394 people with asthma. Eighty-two per cent of participants continued to have active asthma through the study.
For nearly 75 per cent of that group, the condition seemed inactive for years.
“Over 15 years, most individuals with asthma in Ontario were found to have active disease which was interspersed by periods of inactivity when they did not seek medical attention and were likely in remission,” states Dr. Andrea Gershon in a news release. Gershon is a respirologist and scientist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, and the study’s lead author.
“These analyses offer insight into the natural course of asthma activity that may help improve the ability to predict an individual’s course of disease.”
Children, seniors, and those diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were more likely to have active asthma.