{"id":20505,"date":"2019-10-23T10:06:38","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T10:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/?p=20505"},"modified":"2019-10-23T10:06:38","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T10:06:38","slug":"applications-asthma-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/applications-asthma-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Asthma Treatment Transformed by Smartphone Applications"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"fusion-fullwidth fullwidth-box fusion-fullwidth-1  fusion-parallax-none nonhundred-percent-fullwidth\" style=\"border-bottom-width: 0px;border-top-width: 0px;border-bottom-style: solid;border-top-style: solid;padding-bottom:20px;padding-top:20px;padding-left:;padding-right:;\"><style type=\"text\/css\" scoped=\"scoped\">.fusion-fullwidth-1 {\r\n                            padding-left: px !important;\r\n                            padding-right: px !important;\r\n                        }<\/style><div class=\"fusion-row\"><div class=\"fusion-title title fusion-title-center fusion-title-size-one\"><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-left\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#7daac4;\"><\/div><\/div><h1 class=\"title-heading-center\"><span style=\"color: #7daac4;\">Mobile Apps Can Improve Asthma Control<\/span><\/h1><div class=\"title-sep-container title-sep-container-right\"><div class=\"title-sep sep-double sep-solid\" style=\"border-color:#7daac4;\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Asthma is a\u00a0<strong>chronic respiratory disease<\/strong>. Asthma attacks cause narrowing and inflammation of the airways, which leads to difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing, and chest tightening. A severe asthma attack can be\u00a0<strong>life-threatening<\/strong>\u00a0and lead to worse symptoms, such as low blood pressure, slow heart rate, or even confusion.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, from 2016, it was estimated that asthma affects about\u00a0<strong>339.4 million<\/strong>\u00a0people around the world.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There are different <strong>asthma types<\/strong>, such as occupational asthma, severe asthma, adult-onset asthma, seasonal asthma, and childhood asthma. Each type of asthma is triggered by different\u00a0<strong>causes<\/strong>, just like stress, genetics, physical efforts, obesity, allergies, exposure to tobacco, air pollution, or even the menstrual cycle. There is\u00a0<strong>no cure<\/strong>\u00a0for this disease, but with the right treatment, it can be controlled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">To help tackle this problem and improve treatments,\u00a0<strong>new technologies<\/strong>\u00a0have been created. From\u00a0<strong>air purifiers<\/strong>, that clean the air and improve breathing, to\u00a0<strong>Hypoallergenic Beddings<\/strong>, that do not allow polluted particles to get to the bedding.\u00a0<strong>Wearable medical devices<\/strong>, like wristbands, are also available. They control heart rate, oxygen in the blood, motion, and outside conditions to determine the risk of an asthma attack.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Asthma tracker applications<\/strong>\u00a0are another technology that helps improve asthma treatments. Asthma apps have different functions that go from asthma\u00a0<strong>emergency support<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong>treatment advice<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0<strong>medication alerts<\/strong>. Some others show how the temperature and pollution in a specific area can affect your lungs and if there is\u00a0<strong>a risk<\/strong>\u00a0of asthma attack. Some apps are connected to a\u00a0<strong>device<\/strong>\u00a0attached to the inhaler. This device sends information to the apps, such as the number of times the inhaler was used and where. Apps allow you to\u00a0<strong>store your data<\/strong>\u00a0about the disease, like asthma symptoms and medication intake.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These apps enable patients to share data with their\u00a0<strong>doctor<\/strong>. Others have the option to send asthma data to\u00a0<strong>scientists<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0<strong>laboratories<\/strong>. This helps scientists get data about a broader spectrum of people and develop new and effective ways to track and control asthma.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, conducted a\u00a0<strong>study<\/strong>\u00a0in 2019, which consisted in developing an app that created personalised treatments to monitor asthma. The app was connected to a spirometer which controlled the lung function. This way the app could track asthma symptoms and give correct treatment advice. Patients had access to a picture of the inhaler with usage instructions, and the appropriate medication dosage. Research leader, Bjorn Nordlund stated that the results showed this app<strong>\u00a0improves<\/strong>\u00a0asthma symptoms, more than traditional treatments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another\u00a0<strong>study\u00a0<\/strong>from 2019, conducted by researchers from the University of Utah, United States, showed that children who use asthma tracking apps went\u00a0<strong>60%<\/strong>\u00a0less to the Emergency Room and missed school fewer days when compared with asthmatic children who were not app users.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Given our\u00a0<strong>phone addiction and the good results of the studies<\/strong>, it seems like asthma apps can<strong>\u00a0revolutionise asthma treatment<\/strong> by helping patients to control it.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><u>References:<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">What is asthma?, November 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.medicalnewstoday.com\/articles\/323523.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MedicalNewsToday<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">The Global Asthma Report 2018, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalasthmareport.org\/Global%20Asthma%20Report%202018.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Global Asthma Network<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">&lsquo;Asthma app&rsquo; to improve self-monitoring, September, 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/healthcare-in-europe.com\/en\/news\/asthma-app-to-improve-self-monitoring.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Healthcare-in-europe<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Children who use asthma tracking app have better disease control and fewer hospital visits, May 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2019\/05\/190516155346.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ScienceDaily<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Asthma and technological innovations for treating it, November 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/techengage.com\/asthma-technological-treatments\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TECHENGAGE<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","myguten_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strammer.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}