Figures & data
Figure 1 Participant selection. The initial part of the survey included screening questions to ensure eligible participation. This included patients who were: over 18 years old; had asthma diagnosed by a healthcare professional; were in employment; were on long-term asthma control; and who had asthma that affected their sleep/daytime or usual activity in the previous month (see supplementary materials).
Table 1 Survey participant characteristics
Figure 2 Absenteeism (percentage of hours missed per week due to asthma) by country. Absenteeism captures the percentage of hours missed from work because of asthma, including hours missed on sick days and time missed from being late or leaving early due to asthma. All respondents (N=1,559); Brazil (n=198); Canada (n=189); Germany (n=289); Japan (n=301); Spain (n=297); UK (n=285). Error bars represent standard error of the mean.
Figure 3 Impact of asthma on productivity at work. WPAI-SHP Q5: “During the past seven days, how much did asthma affect your productivity while you were working?” Answered on a 0–10 score, with 0= asthma had no effect on my work and 10= asthma completely prevented me from working.
Figure 4 Impact of asthma on regular daily activities other than work. WPAI-SHP Q6: “During the past seven days, how much did asthma affect your ability to do your regular daily activities, other than work at a job?” Answered on a 0–10 score with 0= asthma had no effect on my daily activities and 10= asthma completely prevented me from doing my daily activities.
Figure 5 Survey participant comments and perceived challenges encountered at work due to asthma. Additional open-question 7: “How does your asthma at work make you feel?” Overall, 1,598 participant responses were recorded from the six countries; each individual could raise more than one challenge.
