INSPO Fitness Journal September 2017

“Over the month of September we aim to
run a total of 70km. Ferdi could run all day,
but I am a bit out of practice, so this will be a
great challenge for healthy lungs,” says Hayley.
Challenge participants can sign up on the
website everydayhero.com/nz and choose
the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ
as the chosen charity. Once the challenge has
been set, then it just remains to encourage
friends and family to support the cause.
Respiratory disease
in New Zealand
• Respiratory disease includes asthma, lung
cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease (COPD), obstructive sleep apnoea,
bronchiectasis, childhood bronchiolitis and
childhood pneumonia.
• Respiratory disease is New Zealand’s third
most common cause of death.
• Respiratory disease costs New Zealand
more than $6 billion every year.
• One in six (over 700,000) New Zealanders
live with a respiratory condition, and these
rates are worsening.
• Respiratory disease accounts for one in ten
of all hospital stays.
• More than half of the people admitted to
hospital with a poverty-related condition
are there because of a respiratory problem
such as asthma, bronchiolitis, acute
infection or pneumonia.
Breathe Better
SEPTEMBER
For most Kiwis breathing is something we don’t think twice
about. But for one-in-six living with a respiratory condition,
being able to breathe properly is far from reality.
This month the Asthma and Respiratory
Foundation NZ has launched its
annual respiratory awareness month in
New Zealand.
Breathe Better September is a national
movement for Kiwis to show their support
for better breathing and healthy lungs.
“Over 700,000 Kiwis have a respiratory
condition, it’s the third leading cause of
death and costs the country $6 billion each
year,” says Asthma and Respiratory Foundation
NZ chief executive Letitia O’Dwyer.
This September the foundation is calling
for people to participate in the “healthy lungs
challenge”. This involves taking up a challenge
during September that works towards
keeping lungs active and healthy.
Examples of challenges are setting a goal
for exercise, meditation, eating healthy or
quitting smoking. People can choose what will
be a challenge for them, therefore being inclusive
of everyone and their varying abilities.
Hayley Sims from Wellington will complete
a challenge along with her dog Ferdi.
• People living in the most deprived households
are admitted to hospital for
respiratory illness over three times more
often than people from the wealthiest
areas.
Asthma in New Zealand
• Over 521,000 people take medication for
asthma − one in nine adults and one in
seven children (Source: New Zealand
Health Survey).
• Large numbers of children (3,552 or 410.3
per 100,000 in 2015) are still being
admitted to hospital with asthma, and
some of these will have had a potentially
life-threatening attack.
• By far the highest number of people being
admitted to hospital with asthma are
Māori, Pacific peoples and people living in
the most deprived areas: Māori are 3.4
times and Pacific peoples 3.9 times more
likely to be hospitalised than Europeans
or other New Zealanders, and people living
in the most deprived areas are 3.7 times
more likely to be hospitalised than those in
the least deprived areas.
• The cost of asthma to the nation is over
$858 million per year (Telfar Barnard et al.,
2016).
30 INSPO – FITNESS JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 2017