Opportunity for consumers!

Establishment of a ‘National Asthma Consumer Advisory Group’ (ACAG) to obtain feedback into consumer aspects of disease from people who have asthma

Ethics approval number: RES-24-0000-864Q

Why is this study being conducted?

Australia has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world, with over 2.8 million or approximately 11% of Australians living with the condition. Often people with asthma feel challenged by their day-today symptoms, whether that is in recognising their importance, affordability of treatment, access to good advice, difficulty with adherence to long term therapy and regular medical review or whether other issues make it hard to manage their asthma well.

Despite reductions in rates of death from asthma, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of people with poor asthma control in Australia over the last decade, a situation that needs to be addressed urgently.

Therefore, it is really important that we hear directly from the people who have asthma, so that we can better understand the reasons for this and put changes in place that address the barriers to better care in future. We are open to any ideas which will help to reverse this trend.

What does participation involve?

People from across Australia will be invited to participate, from city, regional and remote areas.

You will be asked to complete a questionnaire to ensure you are eligible for this survey. If so, a short questionnaire and an asthma control questionnaire-5 (ACQ-5) will be emailed to you along with the consent form. We will arrange a  one-off meeting to discuss your asthma experience and ideas with you.  This will be a one-hour Zoom meeting with a respiratory physician, a research assistant  and 20 people with asthma. We will let you know the date and time details and provide the log-in link for the virtual meeting. It  will be recorded for analysis by the research assistant to compile the  findings from the discussion.

What about privacy and confidentiality?

Only the study research assistant will have access to personal information and any contact information you provide will be stored separately. Only preferred name will be seen by other participants  in the Zoom meetings. No personal information will be shared with other researchers or made public.

If you would like more information about the study, please follow the link.