Perceptions of asthma: the views of young people Available to Purchase

Over 1,000 secondary school students (ages 11‐16) completed a closed‐form questionnaire about the nature, causes and consequences of asthma. The questionnaire contained items which related to conceptions about asthma which had emerged in previous work, and also items relating to the known scientific issues surrounding asthma. In general, most students knew about many of the triggers which can cause an asthma attack, although fewer recognised the allergenic properties of nuts and the possible role of emotional upset. More than half thought that people with asthma could not perform well at sport, and a fifth saw them as somehow “weaker”. A fifth thought of asthma as being simply inconvenient, but not serious. These ideas persisted in the oldest students, and it seems likely that they will exist in the adult population to a similar extent. In general, girls seemed to be better informed about asthma than boys.