Extract
Breathlessness diminishes the physical, mental and social wellbeing of people living long-term with this disabling symptom [1]. Identifying its impacts on patients and their families helps to inform appropriate non-pharmacological and pharmacological management [2, 3]. A randomised controlled trial suggests that clinicians are less likely to identify or manage chronic breathlessness than chronic pain [4]. Previous population studies estimate 9.5% of adults experience breathlessness [5], with one in 100 individuals being seriously impacted daily [6]. We conducted a population study aimed at identifying the proportion of people with breathlessness who report this symptom in clinical consultations. If discussed, we explored whether patients or clinicians (physicians; nurses) initiated the conversation and, if not discussed, whether patients would welcome such discussions.
Abstract
Breathlessness is invisible in patient–clinician consultations. Improving clinical history taking is critical to help identify more consistently the presence and impact of breathlessness, especially for people living long-term with this disabling symptom. https://bit.ly/3fD1nVS
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the participants who gave their time to respond to the survey. We thank Qualtrics for facilitating this project, especially Daniel Chong, Sujit Singh, Rebecca Toll, Andy Rohner and Matt Lee. We are grateful to Debbie Marriott for her untiring support in preparing the manuscript for publication and facilitating team meetings for the duration of the project.
Footnotes
Data availability: The questionnaire used in this study is in the public domain and can be accessed at https://osf.io/fhxkc
Author contributions: Conception and design: S. Kochovska and D.C. Currow; data collection: S. Kochovska and D.C. Currow; data analyses: S. Kochovska, S. Chang and D.C. Currow; drafting the article: S. Kochovska; revision for important intellectual content and final approval of the version to be published: all authors.
Conflict of interest: D.C. Currow is an unpaid member of an advisory board for Helsinn Pharmaceuticals and Specialist Therapeutics, and has consulted to, and received intellectual property payments from Mayne Pharma. The other authors declare no completing interests.
Support statement: This study was supported by a University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Health Early Career Researcher Seed Grant (S. Kochovska) and discretionary funds held by the academic teams involved in the collection and analyses of these data. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
- Received August 16, 2022.
- Accepted September 27, 2022.
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