{"id":3437,"date":"2019-12-10T12:48:34","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T12:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=3437"},"modified":"2020-02-20T15:11:34","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:11:34","slug":"the-respiratory-health-of-the-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/respiratory\/the-respiratory-health-of-the-nation\/","title":{"rendered":"The respiratory health of the nation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-3439\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211319\/P2-Irish-Thoracic-Society-X-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211319\/P2-Irish-Thoracic-Society-X-headshot.jpg 400w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211319\/P2-Irish-Thoracic-Society-X-headshot-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Dr Aidan O&#8217;Brien<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Consultant Respiratory Physician, and President, The Irish Thoracic Society <\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The lungs are essential for life and all of us at one time or another have experienced breathlessness, a common and often chronic and disabling symptom for people with respiratory disease.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>The Irish Thoracic Society, the national organisation representing respiratory healthcare professionals on the island of Ireland, recently published &#8216;Respiratory Health of the Nation&#8217;, a comprehensive report on the size and the burden of respiratory disease in Ireland. This provides a picture of our nation\u2019s respiratory health and brings into sharp focus the severe impact of respiratory disease on individuals, the Irish population and the health service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key findings:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Hospitalisation:<\/strong> respiratory disease accounts for more hospitalisations than for\ncardiovascular and non-lung cancer cases combined (14% versus 8% and 5%\nrespectively)<\/li><li><strong>Deaths:<\/strong> in the period 2008 to 2016 the number\nof deaths from respiratory disease increased by 14.6% compared to a 7.5% drop\nin cardiovascular deaths<\/li><li><strong>EU:<\/strong> Ireland\u2019s death rate from respiratory\ndisease is the fourth highest in the EU-28 and is 38% higher than the EU\naverage<\/li><li><strong>Disease types:<\/strong> respiratory\ndiseases make up three of the top six causes of death, with the big three being\nlung cancer, COPD and pneumonia. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The report\nincludes an overview of 11 common respiratory conditions and includes the\nfollowing key statistics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Lung cancer<\/strong>: this causes the greatest number of\ncancer deaths in Ireland accounting for 21% of total cancer deaths in 2016<\/li><li><strong>COPD: <\/strong>Ireland has the highest hospitalisation rate\nfor COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) among selected OECD countries\nwith over 87% of these admitted as emergencies<\/li><li><strong>Asthma: <\/strong>Ireland has one of the highest rates of asthma\nin the world<\/li><li><strong>Cystic fibrosis: <\/strong>Ireland has one of the highest global\nincidences of cystic fibrosis.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Impact and reach of respiratory disease <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What is clear from this report is\nthat respiratory disease affects people at all stages of life. It\ndisproportionately affects those from lower socio-economic groups and includes\nconditions that may be prevented or detected earlier through awareness,\nlifestyle choices and access to appropriate services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While\nsmoking is a key risk factor for many respiratory diseases, we are also seeing\nthe influence of other social and environmental factors on respiratory health. As a result of our\ngrowing and ageing population the burden of lung disease is set to increase\ninto the future &#8211; we need to prepare for this by ensuring adequate resources\nand best evidence-based practice is in place to care for our citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Addressing the\nchallenges of too few specialists<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It is important to acknowledge that\nthere have been improvements in respiratory care in Ireland in recent years\nthanks to a leadership approach to tobacco control and progress under National\nClinical Programmes for some respiratory diseases. Measures planned as part of\nthe Sl\u00e1intecare Strategy provide further grounds for optimism. However,\nsignificant challenges exist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are too few respiratory\nspecialists, in particular consultants, the numbers of which lag well behind\nother EU countries, but also nurses, physiotherapists, physiologists and other\nallied healthcare professionals involved in respiratory care. Access to\nelements of good quality care such as pulmonary rehabilitation is severely\nlimited, and we need to meet the challenge of providing integrated care for\nconditions such as COPD with a properly resourced primary care community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Every breath\ncounts<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In\norder to lift some of the burden from families, communities and our health\nservices, we must take the approach that every breath counts. This will require\na cross-sectoral commitment to addressing environmental and other threats to\nrespiratory health. It will require availability of timely access to\nevidence-based interventions, supports, and services at community and hospital\nlevel for people with respiratory symptoms, such as shortness of breath or\nchronic cough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At population level, geographical and socio-economic variations in respiratory health must be addressed, new respiratory programmes implemented and existing programmes evaluated. Emerging threats such as antibiotic resistance and vaccination uptake complacency must be stemmed. All of these measures must be underpinned by timely, comprehensive data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"color:#32373c;background-color:#04603e\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-notice ab-font-size-14 ab-block-notice\" data-id=\"5e5432\"><div class=\"ab-notice-text\" style=\"border-color:#04603e\"><p>The Irish Thoracic Society thanks the authors of the report &#8211; Dr M\u00e1ire O\u2019Connor, Ms Eimir Hurley, Professor Terry O\u2019Connor and Ms Suzanne McCormack. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/irishthoracicsociety.com\/respiratory-health-of-the-nation-2018\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"here for the full report (opens in a new tab)\">here for the full report<\/a>. <\/p><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The lungs are essential for life and all of us at one time or another have experienced breathlessness, a common and often chronic and disabling symptom for people with respiratory disease. The Irish Thoracic Society, the national organisation representing respiratory healthcare professionals on the island of Ireland, recently published &#8216;Respiratory Health of the Nation&#8217;, a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/respiratory\/the-respiratory-health-of-the-nation\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":3441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[3980],"class_list":["post-3437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-respiratory","tag-respiratory-health-2019"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211318\/GettyImages-11390478701-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211318\/GettyImages-11390478701-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Health Awareness","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/jennyhyndman\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3437"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3480,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437\/revisions\/3480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}