Breathe Better September is back with a challenge

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.

On 1 September the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ will launch 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 Letitia O’Dwyer, Chief Executive from the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ.

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.

"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 Sims.

Challenge participants sign up on the website everydayhero.com/nz, choose the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ as their chosen charity, and once their challenge has been set encourage their friends and family to support them.

Respiratory disease includes asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer and obstructive sleep apnoea.

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. 

• 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. 

• Across all age groups, hospitalisation rates are much higher for Pacific peoples (3.1 times higher) and Maori (2.4 times higher) than for other ethnic groups (Telfar Barnard et al., 2015). 

 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).