Don't skip the asthma inhaler just because you feel fine

Asthma is a chronic condition requiring ongoing care, even when there are no symptoms. Regular use of a preventer inhaler is essential.

- Tang Wern Ee

A patient of mine is a 53-year-old educator with a history of asthma since early adulthood. Despite being prescribed a preventer inhaler to be used daily to control her airway inflammation, she seldom used it.

She assumed her asthma was under control, as she considered her symptoms to be mild and infrequent. She relied instead on using her other inhaler, a reliever inhaler, whenever her asthma symptoms came on.

However, a viral infection triggered a severe asthma attack, requiring an emergency department visit and an overnight stay in the hospital.

This experience is far from unusual. Many people with asthma tend not to use their preventer inhalers, preferring instead to rely on their reliever inhalers, which are meant to be used to quickly relieve acute symptoms like wheezing or difficulty in breathing.

But it underscores the importance of consistent use of a preventer inhaler in maintaining long-term asthma control and preventing severe asthma attacks that can be life-threatening.

Asthma is often not seen as a chronic condition because many of those with asthma feel well outside their episodes of asthma attacks. This reinforces their belief that it is a short-term, rather than a chronic or long-standing health condition.

There can, in fact, be serious consequences. In Singapore, about one in 10 people has been diagnosed with asthma. In 2019, 0.57 people per 100,000 died from asthma. That may sound like a small number, but it means that in a country of five million people, around 28 lives were lost to asthma in a year.

Respiratory diseases, especially asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases like chronic bronchitis, are among the 20 leading causes of disability in Singapore.