EFA eagerly launches its new European report “Active Asthma and COPD Patients ACCESS Care”. The report unveils new patient evidence on asthma and COPD patients’ access to diagnosis and care, involvement in the care they receive through empowerment and prevention.

The report brings the patient voice of 774 asthma and COPD patients from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the UK and sets the recommendations to #ShowLeadership for the future.

Access to healthcare still a problem in Europe

In Europe, 10 percent of adults live with COPD and more than 30 million children and adults have asthma. While improvements in health could be registered in the last decades, unequal access to healthcare and health remains a problem among and within countries and population groups.

Identifying existing gaps in healthcare

It is therefore important to measure the current limitations of access to healthcare and present the results to policy makers, healthcare professionals and patients. The overarching goal is to identify and provide recommendations on how to fill existing and persisting gaps.

Country-factsheets highlight results at national level

People living with chronic diseases such as asthma and COPD especially benefit from good control over treatment modalities and improved Quality of Life. To highlight needs at national level, the report includes country-factsheets showing relevant data for each country in collaboration of EFA members in most countries and figures that verge from the overall averages. Thank you to members for helping in interpreting the results for their country.

Prevention, Diagnosis, Care, Empowerment

With our new Active Patients Access Care report, we provide an overview of patient-reported levels of access to prevention, diagnosis, care and empowerment. We hope our evidence-based recommendations will be considered by those addressed and contribute to improving the lives of people living with asthma and COPD in Europe.

ACCESS report presentation at ERS Congress in Madrid

EFA’s Sofia Romagosa, will be presenting the results of the report at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Madrid in the beginning of October.

The full report is available here. Highlighting country specific data, country factsheets are available for Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom. A press release on the launch of the report is available here.