Astrazeneca launches innovative asthma awareness campaign

Over-reliance on reliever pumps linked to increased risk of asthma attacks

 Recent updated global recommendations have overturned decades of asthma care and represent the most significant change in asthma management in over 30 years. This is according to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). To inform asthma patients about the new GINA recommendations, an integrated awareness campaign has been launched by AstraZeneca globally in partnership with the Global Allergy and Airways Patient Platform (GAAPP) and locally with the National Asthma Education Programme (NAEP©) and Independent Community Pharmacy Association (ICPA). Dubbed Yes2Breathe – the Break Over-Reliance campaign aims to help people with asthma reduce their risk of asthma attacks. It highlights that just three or more puffs of the blue inhaler per week increases a patient’s risk of asthma attacks and invites consumers to take a free online test to rate their reliance.

Click here to take the Reliever Reliance test: www.yes2breathe.co.za

Essentially a public service announcement, the campaign includes PR, social media and advertising to drive the potentially life-saving message to South Africans. Attention grabbing images – specially created for the campaign – are being used to earn the attention of asthmatics. The campaign’s hero images feature people with a blue asthma mouthpiece in place of their mouth; it’s a striking visual and creative that’s quite literally turning heads.  Video and podcasts have also been developed to help push the message and ensure the campaign messaging is delivered in whatever medium the public like to consume content.

Campaign Premise

The key campaign message unpacks that for decades, treatment of asthma has involved two different types of inhalers. One of the campaign’s key opinion leaders – Johannesburg-based GP, Doctor Marlin McKay, says: “Many asthmatic patients use a maintenance inhaler which contains an anti-inflammatory medicine; they also use a symptom reliever inhaler which is blue in colour and contains an item which opens up the airways also known as short-acting beta2 agonists (SABA). ^1,2 Asthma patients frequently underuse anti-inflammatory maintenance therapy and instead, over-rely on SABA reliever therapy which provides rapid and temporary relief. The problem with this approach is it can mask the worsening of symptoms and actually increases the risk of asthma attacks.”^3-6

The link between SABA blue reliever inhalers over-reliance and an increased risk of asthma attacks has led to updated recommendations from GINA. These recommendations are provided for people using these specific inhalers and advising them to avoid establishing a pattern of reliance on SABA early in the disease.¹

GINA no longer recommends SABA blue reliever inhalers alone as the preferred reliever therapy, and instead recommends the use of a low dose inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)-formoterol therapy as needed as the preferred reliever therapy across all asthma severities.¹

Campaign Mechanic

To help asthma patients assess their levels of over-reliance the campaign offers a first-of-its-kind digital assessment tool. Known as the Reliever Reliance Test. This evidence-based questionnaire will empower patients to assess their over-reliance on their blue reliever inhaler, SABA⁹, by answering five short questions.

Dr McKay affirms that “many patients feel dependant on their SABA blue inhaler, mistakenly believing this to be the best way to control their symptoms. Having said that, it’s important to understand firstly what over-reliance looks like, and this is where the test comes in. I strongly urge that everyone living with asthma should take the test – it’s easy to navigate and will help them understand whether they are relying too heavily on their SABA. If the results indicate over-reliance, then that information can facilitate conversations with their health care professional around their asthma management.

“Recognising that the use of SABA blue inhalers to control asthma symptoms actually increases the risk of asthma attacks^1,10,11 – action to correct asthmatic compliance has never been more important. When you consider that South Africa’s prevalence of asthma is among the highest in the world and we are ranked fifth for asthma mortality¹², the case for better control is clear.  Educational campaigns such as this carry weight and

Backed by Science

Khomotso Mashilane, Medical Director: African Cluster, at AstraZeneca adds, “Evidence suggests that healthcare systems are hard-wired to facilitate habitual SABA overuse and over-reliance. Given the recent updates to global asthma management recommendations backed by leading expert opinion, AstraZeneca developed the Break Over-Reliance public health campaign to inform and educate patients, health professionals and policy makers. It centres around the potential dangers of SABA over-reliance and the urgent need to address this issue. As an established leader in respiratory care, we are committed to working with the respiratory community to provide tools that will help improve asthma control and aim to eliminate preventable asthma attacks for the millions of asthma patients in South Africa.”

For more information about the Break Over-Reliance campaign and to take the Reliever Reliance Test, visit http://bit.ly/Yes2Breathe or https://www.rateyourreliance.com/

Track the campaign on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yes2breathe and IG: https://www.instagram.com/yes2breathe/?hl=en

References

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