Author Archives: Jackie Aim

What to expect from an asthma review?

The nurse/doctor will ask you about your symptoms, what triggers them and what helps relieve or reduce them. They will discuss your treatment plan and agree what actions you should take if your asthma gets worse. You should be given a personal action plan and sometimes a ‘stand by’ or ‘rescue medication’ course of tablets to take if this happens.

The asthma review is an opportunity to discuss how you are coping generally with asthma and how you look after yourself. Things like coping with stress, keeping fit and healthy, stopping smoking, identifying and avoiding your asthma triggers will help you to mange your asthma at home.

It is sometimes a good idea to take a family member or friend along to your asthma review for moral support and to help you remember all that is discussed.

For an example of an action plan see:

Remember NHS 24
The telephone number is: 111

Your asthma review with your GP

preview Description: A mature woman patient consulting a GP in the surgery consulting room.

The aim of an asthma review is to find out how you are getting on, tailor your treatment to your asthma symptoms and support you looking after yourself and managing your asthma.

Make sure you ask any questions you may have about your asthma. Sometimes it is helpful to make some notes in advance about things that are bothering you.

Take all your inhalers to your review so you can check that you are using them correctly.

Take along your personal action plan if you have been given one.

What to expect after diagnosis?

Your healthcare professional should explain to you what the term ‘asthma’ means for you, as well as giving some written information or refer you to additional information like asthma websites.
You will be started on some treatment depending on the severity of your symptoms and shown how to use your inhalers correctly.
You should have an individual asthma action plan which you discuss with your health care team and use when you are at home.
You will be invited back for regular ‘review’.
You should have a partnership with your health care team and the opportunity to ask questions. You can share information about how your asthma is affecting your life at every consultation and at your ‘review’.
If you are finding daily tasks more difficult they could refer for equipment or help from social services to make daily life easier. This could include local services, benefits advice or support.

Remember NHS 24
The telephone number is: 111

Examples of Asthma Action Plans:

Confirming an asthma diagnosis

From the information that you have given, the breathing tests and how you respond to any treatment, your healthcare professional will be able to confirm if you have asthma. It is like putting together pieces of a jigsaw to make the full picture.

The majority of people are treated by their GP (as shown in the blue section on the diagram opposite).
People who are having difficulty controlling their asthma may be referred for further testing in hospital as an outpatient (as shown in the pink section on the diagram opposite).
Fewer people need more detailed hospital tests for their asthma (as shown in the yellow section on the diagram opposite).

Other tests to confirm asthma

Other tests are often required to ensure there are not other underlying conditions that are affecting your breathing. This can help to confirm a diagnosis of asthma:

Blood samples	Chest x-ray	Skin prick test	Electrocardiograph (ECG)

Blood test are done – mainly to check for other underlying conditions	A chest X ray – to check for other underlying conditions	Allergy tests	Tests of the heart may be necessary, such as a heart trace (ECG)

These tests are done because asthma can be combined with other illnesses or other disease symptoms could be similar. The diagnosis of asthma is sometimes confirmed with a ‘trial of asthma treatments’ to see if you definitely have asthma and they help your symptoms.

Breathing tests to confirm asthma – Peak Flow

Peak expiratory flow (peak flow) measures tightness in the larger breathing tubes or ‘upper airways’.

You will be asked to take a deep breath in, and blow ‘hard and quickly’ into the peak flow meter.
Sometimes you will be asked to do this before and after some puffs of inhaler.
Sometimes you will be asked to do some measurements at home over a week or so once you are shown how to measure your ‘peak flow’ yourself. This is called ‘serial peak flow’.

See more on peak flow.

Breathing tests to confirm asthma – Spirometry

Man blowing into a spirometer

Asthma can be confused with other illnesses, especially in an older person, so these tests help to confirm an asthma diagnosis:

Spirometry – you may be asked to blow into a machine called a spirometer which shows if your airways (or breathing tubes) have become tighter. Sometimes you will be asked to do these tests before and after some puffs of an inhaler to show if your airways have opened up with the inhaler. You will have to blow into the spirometer a few times to get accurate results.The health care professional will show you how to blow into the spirometer and make sure you are ready to do the test.

See how the spirometry test is done (video clip).

How is asthma in the older person diagnosed?

A healthcare professional listening to a mature man's chest

To find out if you have asthma, the doctor/nurse will ask you to describe your symptoms and what makes them worse or better.

They will ask about any childhood breathing problems, any allergies you have including hayfever and eczema, any breathing problems in the family, any pets and the jobs you have done over the years. They will also ask about smoking, any medicines that you take on prescription or buy at the chemist, and about other longer term conditions you have.

The doctor/nurse will do a physical examination and listen to your breathing using a stethoscope. They will then ask you to do some breathing tests.

Is asthma in the older person common?

Asthma in the over 65’s in Scotland

Although 95% of asthma starts in early childhood, 6 to 10% of people over the age of 65 have asthma in Scotland.
In Scotland a total of 368,000 people have asthma and of those 54,000 are over the age of 65.
Asthma can affect people in many different ways, older or younger.

More information on asthma can be found at: