Helping you stay in control

Asthma is one of the most common respiratory conditions, affecting over 5 million people in the UK. Of these, about 5-10% have difficult to treat (difficult) asthma.

The University of Southampton’s Faculty of Medicine have a long-standing history for expertise in difficult asthma. Ten years ago, we developed an observational research cohort to understand more about difficult asthma. The Wessex Asthma Cohort of Difficult Asthma (WATCH) study runs alongside our Severe and Difficult Asthma Clinic in Southampton.

Through the WATCH study, our research team has shown that most patients with difficult asthma also live with at least one other long term medical condition, meaning they are living with “multimorbidity”. Multimorbidity can worsen asthma symptoms. We aimed to develop a multimodal intervention to support patients with multimorbidity.

We have demonstrated that a personalised exercise intervention delivered in a hospital setting can improve symptoms and asthma related inflammation in asthma. To make this more accessible to patients, we have developed a community based intervention that also includes dietary support, breathing pattern support and behaviour change support.