Wessex Asthma Cohort of Difficult Asthma

The WATCH study is looking for adults aged 18 to 99 who are already receiving specialist care for their asthma at University Hospital Southampton. You would typically be referred to these specialist clinics by your GP or another doctor because your asthma is considered particularly severe.

To be included, you need to be on high-dose asthma medications, which might also include regular or frequent use of steroid tablets, or other medicines that help reduce the need for steroids. These are the usual treatments given for more severe asthma, as advised by UK asthma guidelines.

If you don't attend these specific specialist asthma clinics at University Hospital Southampton, or if your asthma isn't severe enough to require these high-dose treatments, you wouldn't be able to join this particular study.

If you decide to take part in the WATCH study, you won't need to make any extra visits to the hospital. All the research information will be collected during your usual, scheduled appointments at the specialist asthma clinic. During these appointments, you might be asked to fill out questionnaires about your health and how your asthma affects you. You'll also have standard checks like lung function tests and measurements of your height and weight. Occasionally, you might have imaging scans like X-rays, and some blood, urine, or phlegm samples might be collected. These are all things that are often part of your regular clinical care for severe asthma anyway. You'll continue to receive your usual asthma treatment from your doctors during the study. The study doesn't have a fixed end date for individuals; the aim is to follow participants over time to see how their asthma changes, so you could be part of it for several years, as long as you remain a patient at the clinic.