How many times have you heard that. The patient comes into the room, and the response to ‘what can I do for you today’ is…’It’s just my asthma’. Just. What an interesting word. It is like the discussion around ‘I’m just a GP’ – when being a GP is a complicated, skilled profession that goes way beyond ‘just’.  

So it is the same for our patients who understate their condition – with ‘it’s just my asthma’. It is never just asthma. Asthma remains one of the most significant conditions in the burden of disease. 11% of the population live with asthma[1] . It is the most common chronic condition in children, and the biggest burden of disease for those aged 1 to 9 years old. And they go to hospital.  

20% of adults with asthma report that it affects their daily life. There remains a significant mortality at all ages due to asthma, sitting somewhere around 2 per 100,000 of the population each year. In my rural practice I have several times had to tell families that their husband or child has died, and we shouldn’t have to do that. Yet somewhere along the line asthma has dropped off as a priority. Only around 1% of the asthmatic population have an Asthma Care Plan.  Reviewing the RACGP guide to preventive care activities (the ‘Red Book”) shows that asking respiratory questions appears nowhere one the lists.  

So it isn’t just the patients that have the attitude, in some ways the profession does too. But we can fix this. First, we can encourage all our patients to reframe their asthma care and treat it seriously. We can use our software tools to identify patients with asthma, and look at how many are simply using salbutamol, and design strategies to combat this. We can ask more questions, and provide more answers.  

It’s never ‘just asthma’  

[1] https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/chronic-respiratory-conditions/asthma 

Australian Asthma Handbook Update 2025: First Look
60-Day prescribing for asthma: what healthcare professionals need to know