Pre-asthma: a useful concept for prevention and disease-modification?
Asthma, which affects some 300 million people worldwide and caused 455,000 deaths in 2019, is a significant burden to suffers and to society. It is the most common chronic disease in children and represents one of the major causes of years lived with disability. Significant efforts are made by organizations such as WHO to improve the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of asthma. However, asthma prevention has been less studied. Currently, there is a concept of pre-diabetes which allows a reduction in full-blown diabetes if diet and exercise are undertaken. Similar predictive states are found in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In this paper, we explore the possibilities for asthma prevention at a population level and also investigate the possibility of defining a state of pre-asthma, in which intensive treatment could reduce progression to asthma. Since asthma is a heterogeneous condition, this paper concerns allergic asthma. A subsequent one will deal with late-onset eosinophilic asthma.
Authors: Glenis Scadding, Marinda McDonald, Vibeke Backer, Guy Scadding, Manuel Bernal-Sprekelsen, Diego Conti, Eugenio De Corso, Zuzana Diamant, Claudia Gray, Claire Hopkins, Milos Jesenak, Pål Johansen, Jasper Kappen, Joaquim Mullol, David Price, Santiago Quince, Sietze Reitsma, Sanna Toppila-Salmi, Brent Senior, Jacob P. Thyssen, Ulrich Wahn, Peter W. Hellings
