Asthma, physical activity and sexuality: stop misconceptions!

Far from being a contraindication to the practice of physical activity, when it is controlled, asthma can on the contrary benefit from the benefits of many sports. Hiking, biking, swimming, basketball, or running can even help develop the lung capacity of people with asthma, even strengthen certain respiratory muscles, and could have a positive impact on the number of attacks and symptoms, exercise tolerance , nocturnal awakenings, and even anxiety and depressive disorders. Something that those who are not confronted with this chronic respiratory disease are not necessarily aware of, often giving rise to received ideas, even clichés, from which the people concerned suffer on a daily basis.

More activity in asthmatics

Stereotypes that a survey carried out by Ifop for Sanofi, in association with the French Sports Foundation, on the occasion of World Asthma Day is trying to sweep away today. One of the objectives being in particular to fight against the clichés which surround the association of asthma and physical activity, among which the simple fact that asthmatic patients cannot – and should not – play sports. A received idea undermined by a first figure that may surprise more than one: nearly two-thirds of asthma patients (65%) practice at least one physical activity per week, compared to only 61% of people who are not not affected by the disease. A proportion that drops significantly, however, to 53%, among severe asthmatics.

And contrary to popular belief, people with asthma practice the same disciplines as the rest of the general population. More than one in two asthmatics (53%) have turned to hiking at least once in the past twelve months (compared to 51% of non-asthmatics), presenting it as their favorite physical activity. This is followed by cycling (52% vs 46%), swimming, swimming or water aerobics (50% vs 38%), weight training or physical culture (35% vs 21%), jogging or jogging (31 % vs 23%), fitness (30% vs 19%), racket sports (26% vs 18%), dance (26% vs 16%), or even yoga, pilates, or stretching ( 25% vs. 14%). The one and only physical activity contraindicated in the case of asthma, scuba diving, is only practiced by 3% of the panel.

Impact on work and social life

Aware of the benefits that these physical activities can bring, people with asthma, as we have seen, do not skimp on the efforts in this area, with an impact on their physical and mental health. This does not prevent them from feeling anxieties or constraints vis-à-vis their illness. Nearly one in two people with asthma (46%) say it has a negative impact on the practice of physical activity, and more than a third (36%) on their daily activities.

And if almost two thirds of patients (64%) consider these physical activities as essential, if not necessary, and even believe that they are synonymous with pleasure and satisfaction (60%), more than four out of ten (42%) also see it as a challenge, and 19% as a source of anxiety.

Asthma can also represent a constraint for social and professional life. More than four in ten patients surveyed (42%) say they have given up on a walk due to the weather, 39% have already given up running after a bus or other means of transport, and more than a third (34%) has already favored the elevator over the stairs. Numbers that skyrocket for severe asthmatics.

But the disease, or more precisely its consequences on the daily lives of patients, can be the source of ridicule. A quarter of people with asthma surveyed confide in having suffered from it in the context of sports activities, a fifth (21%) suffered from teasing from a partner in the context of carrying out daily tasks, and barely less (19%) in the context of work.

Asthma, a source of discomfort in sexual life, mainly in men

If asthma impacts the sexual life of all patients, men appear to be more strongly affected than women. 28% of men with asthma and more than half of men with severe asthma feel embarrassed in their sex life (53%). Women with asthma are half as likely (16%) to raise it.

Also, men suffering from severe asthma say they are anxious about their sexual performance and 44% have already feared being less efficient. A third of them (31%) even report having already had to “stop a sexual relationship in order to go and take emergency treatment”.

They are even 41% to have already avoided sexual intercourse for fear that it will cause an asthma attack (against 20% for people who have already been affected by asthma).

Finally, 21% of people who have already been affected by asthma indicate that they have been teased/commented about their sexual abilities. This figure even reaches a rate of 42% in men with severe asthma.

Schooling impacted by asthma, despite the “PAI” system

Asthma is a real obstacle to certain school activities, especially for the patients most affected by the disease. Thus, 37% of people who have already had asthma report having felt brakes on taking sports lessons like others, 33% on taking part in playtime, and 25% on being respected by other students in general. . Figures that oscillate between 40 and 50% for severe asthmatics and among those with poorly controlled asthma!

Available for asthmatics, the PAI, or Individualized Reception Project, is a device that makes it possible to adapt the management of asthma in school children. This one is rather well known to asthmatics. 54% of people under 35 affected by asthma have indeed heard of it. This figure rises to 73% among severe asthmatics and 65% among those with poorly controlled asthma.

“This study provides valuable information on the sports habits of people with asthma. It helps to understand the issues in this disease. We are delighted and proud to contribute to advancing knowledge in this area. Even if sport is increasingly associated with better health, especially for asthmatics, there is still a long way to go,” underlines Charlotte Feraille, General Delegate of the French Sport Foundation.

World Asthma Day aims to inform and raise awareness among as many people as possible about the chronic disease, which affects more than 4 million people in France, according to Insermand more than 260 million people around the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

*This study was carried out by Ifop for Sanofi by self-administered online questionnaire, from March 17 to 29, 2023, with a representative national sample of 5,009 people aged 15 and over, including 1,111 people affected or having already been affected by asthma (including 742 current asthmatics).