Living with asthma: the experiences of young people at home and at school

This study is concerned with how young people with moderate to severe asthma live with and explain the disorder and manage the resulting symptoms. Based on in-depth interviews with 55 young people aged 11-16 living in West London, it shows that asthma restricted their lives at school and recreationally but that they were actively involved with their condition and its management. The study reveals that while prescribed medicines in the form of inhalers were used as the primary means of coping with asthma episodes, the young people were concerned about being dependent on such medicines, in line with more general ambivalence in late modern cultures about the long term use of prescribed medicines. It also demonstrates how social relations in particular contexts help to determine the extent to which asthma episodes can be managed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.