A handheld fan can help relieve chronic breathlessness, so why isn't it implemented more?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-11-29 06:00

Australia; International; NSW

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People with chronic breathlessness can help relieve their symptoms by using a handheld, battery-operated fan, however this practice is not as common as it could be, according to international and Australian researchers. The team interviewed 12 UK-based doctors who care for people with chronic breathlessness to ask them about their views and experiences with recommending fans, and the challenges they had with getting their patients to use them. The researchers say the doctors who did recommend fans did so because they had read up on the evidence of their effectiveness, and often reported needing to thoroughly explain to their patients the medical reasons why it would work to convince them such a simple idea would be effective, with many patients likely to be sceptical. They said getting access to fans to supply to their patients was an issue, and they often needed to convince their patients to go out and buy one themselves.

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Journal/
conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Technology Sydney (UTS), University of Hull, UK

Funder: This work was supported by the INSPIRE grant generously awarded to Hull York Medical School by the Academy of Medical Sciences through the Wellcome Trust (Ref:IR5\1018). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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