It is not just respiratory symptoms or a feeling of tiredness that asthma sufferers have to face daily, many of them even have to deal with shame and a sense of guilt using inhalers at work, preventing them from working to their full potential, new research has found. The World Health Organization estimates that 235 million people around the world suffer from asthma. The study, published in the Journal of Asthma and Allergy, showed that asthma sufferers are missing nearly one-tenth of work hours due to their symptoms, which also results in a loss of productivity and affects their emotional well being. On an average, three out of four workers could not work to their full potential, showed the survey of over 1,500 symptomatic asthma patients across six countries -- Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, Spain and the UK.

Overall, total work productivity dropped by one third (36 per cent) due to asthma.