New global tool launched to address the lack of understanding and prioritisation around severe asthma care.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, May 2, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- Globally, more than 334 million people live with asthma, and approximately 5-10% of them live with a severe form of the disease that both impairs quality of life, sleep, daily activities, work, school, relationships, and mental health, and leads to disproportionately high rates of hospitalisation and even death. On top of this comes the enormous societal costs due to lost productivity and high healthcare resource usage. Despite the significant impact of the disease, there remains a lack of understanding around severe asthma, which is not recognised as a healthcare priority in many countries.

To bring attention to this gap, the Severe Asthma Index has been launched as a first-of-its-kind, free-to-access, evidence-based tool that provides a holistic view of how different countries approach severe asthma care.

Commissioned by and with financial support from Sanofi and Regeneron, and developed by the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CIFS) and validated by a six-member independent Steering Committee of experts in the respiratory space. The Index includes findings from 29 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries based on quantitative and qualitative indicators. These markers were collected via public databases, ongoing conversations with the external independent Steering Committee, and outreach to country-level experts (i.e., government leadership and respiratory experts).

The Severe Asthma Index highlights national approaches and gaps in the standard of severe asthma care, and identifies areas that require action for improvement as well as best practices. The Severe Asthma Index Companion Report identifies five key observations:
- There is a need for a “whole system” approach.
- Severe asthma has high societal costs, so addressing its burden stands to have positive knock-on effects.
- There is a need for standardised and consistent reporting of asthma data.
- There is potential to improve resource allocation efficiency in healthcare systems.
- Focus is needed on individualisation and health behaviour in asthma care.
With data specific to each country, the tool drives active and informed discussions, motivates stakeholders to prioritise and support systematic improvements in severe asthma care, and advocates for tailored national action plans that really address patients’ needs. The full report is available at www.SevereAsthmaIndex.org.

“We could do much better to improve quality of life and well-being for persons with severe asthma, a disease that has a significant and partly avoidable burden on individuals, families, and societies. It is important to understand how different countries approach this condition to identify best practices and areas that need improvement in the future,” said Bogi Eliasen, Director of Health at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies. “We hope that the Severe Asthma Index will help to drive institutional change and improve the lives of people living with severe asthma around the world.”

The Severe Asthma Index is available online at www.SevereAsthmaIndex.org and can be accessed for free. It is expected to be a valuable resource for healthcare professionals, policymakers, patient advocacy groups, and anyone interested in improving severe asthma care.

For more information, visit www.SevereAsthmaIndex.org.

Direct link to the report: https://devops-test-bucket-gdm.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/Severe_Asthma_Index_Companion_Report_v6_7b1cd5fe8d.pdf

Toke Hanghøj
Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies
+45 26 25 80 44
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