PEOPLE with asthma are finding it difficult to pay for their medicines in the recession, a charity warned last night.
A survey of 1,000 patients for Asthma UK revealed 37% are struggling to pay for prescriptions due to the credit crunch.
A separate study published in the Primary Care Respiratory Journal found some asthmatics try to make their inhalers “last longer” by taking them less frequently.
Carried out by Dr Ellen Schafheutle, from Manchester University, it concluded that “medication cost is a factor in asthma patients’ management decisions, with a potential cost-related impact on asthma control”.
A total of 5.4m people in the UK have asthma.
