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Project to improve care for those with asthma wins Bupa Foundation research grant

18 March 2003

The Bupa Foundation has awarded a grant of more than £330,000 to a study that will examine the effectiveness of those with asthma helping others with asthma learn how to deal with and manage their condition.

The study is one of three to be awarded grants totalling £600,000 by the Bupa Foundation this year. All three projects look specifically at the role of patient choice and education in healthcare.

Bupa's medical director Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen said, "There is a lot of talk about the patient as a consumer, but there has been little research on patient involvement in healthcare. The Bupa Foundation therefore decided to take a proactive role in advancing thinking and practice in this important area and has committed £600,000 to support these exciting research projects. We look forward to seeing the results of these studies over the coming years and hope they will benefit patients directly."

The study led by Martyn Partridge, professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College, London, and Ann Caress, lecturer in nursing at the University of Manchester, has been prompted by research showing that 97 per cent of people with asthma are not being given personal asthma action plans, the information and skills they need to control their own disease.

The prevalence of asthma in the UK is amongst the highest in the world. There are an estimated five million sufferers giving rise to about four million consultations in primary care and a loss of over 18 million working days every year. The condition frequently causes hospitalisation and accounted for nearly 74,000 emergency admissions to hospitals in the UK in 1999. However, the burden of asthma on both sufferers and the health service can be partially lifted if patients are educated to manage their condition.

"We know that giving control for managing a long term condition such as asthma to patients results in the best outcomes for them. Educating patients on how best to manage their conditions can be time consuming and is usually done by nurses. Our study aims to discover whether well-trained patients with asthma can train other asthma sufferers to manage their condition equally well," said Prof Martyn Partridge.

The benefits of patients training other patients on how to deal with long-term asthma could include freeing up nurses and other health professionals, and improving confidence in treatment and quality of life for patients learning from others with the same condition. All trainers will undergo a course at the National Respiratory Training Centre.

Bupa's medical director Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen said, "The Bupa Foundation looks forward to seeing the results of this study which concentrates on educating those with asthma to achieve the best results for them and could have the additional benefit of freeing up nurses' time."

The Bupa Foundation is a charitable organisation founded in 1979 that exists to provide finance towards the prevention, relief and cure of sickness and ill health. The Bupa Foundation has awarded grants in excess of £8 million for medical research and healthcare initiatives. This year the Bupa Foundation has committed £600,000 to fund research projects looking at the impact of patient choice and education.

For further information contact:

Fiona Reid
Bupa Corporate Communications
Tel. 0207 656 2085
reidf@bupa.com