Respiratory Disease Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Respiratory Disease Paper - Essay Example So, when an allergy arrives in the form of asthma later in life, these cells become overreactive ending in constriction and spasm of airways. Asthma is classified on the basis of severity of symptoms. It is classified into different categories from intermittent to mild persistent to moderate persistent to severe persistent in an ascending order. The frequency of symptoms makes asthma classified as such. These symptoms include coughing, dyspnoea, wheezing of breath etc. This classification system is very important because it determines how treatment of a patient would proceed. Without classifying asthma first, treatment cannot be started because there is a different treatment plan for each category (Yawn, 2008, p. 139). Another way by which asthma is classified is related to allergens to see whether allergy is the factor responsible for precipitating symptoms or not. According to this classification, asthma can be divided into two categories, extrinsic (atopic) where allergens precipitate symptoms and intrinsic (non-atopic) where allergens are not involved. The classic disease prevention system for asthma is based on prima ry, secondary, and tertiary prevention. Primary prevention is based on risk reduction. So, it works by eliminating occupational and behavioural factors which promote development of asthmatic symptoms. Secondary prevention seeks to restrict disease progression by using screening tools. This makes it easier and more cost-effective to control asthma than when symptoms start appearing. Tertiary prevention seeks to lessen the disastrous effects produced by asthma on body. It can also include modification of behavioural and environmental factors to bring quality in life. Much research is done to scrutinize the impact of asthma on society. The cost of asthma to society is staggeringly huge. The relationship between asthma prevalence and society is well established. Research claims that one out of every 12 Americans is exposed to asthma. This means