Supporting people towards better lung health in 2025
The start of a new year is an ideal time to support people to consider small ways to begin working towards a healthy lifestyle. Grand gestures are unlikely to be sustainable long term but taking small steps towards a longer term goal can help to improve or maintain their lung health and encourage patients to take further steps along the road.
Here are our top five primary care resolutions for 2025 to encourage and support patients to improve or protect their lung health.
1. Be an advocate for smoking cessation
Being the trigger that initiates a smoking cessation attempt should always be at the top of your list of actions to improve lung health. Get yourself up to speed with the Very Brief Advice (VBA) approach to help you start the conversation with our podcasts and articles. While your first conversation might not be the one to prompt a quit attempt, the next one might be. The PCRS Tobacco Dependency Pragmatic Guide provides a range of useful information and resources. Our Challenging Perceptions of COPD campaign video short provides a concise guide to addressing smoking in people with COPD. For people wanting to start treatment check the most up to date PCRS position for treating tobacco dependency so together you can select the right options for them.
2. Help people find ways to get more fresh air
Discuss ways to get out into the fresh air at least once a day. This can be anything from 10 minutes in front of an open window while practising breathing control or in the garden to a brisk walk to the shop and back once a day. Our PCRU article on The Breathing Thinking Functioning Model details techniques that can optimise respiratory function and highlights the importance of exercise and goal setting for people living with breathlessness.
3. Encourage people to take measures to improve indoor air quality
Indoor air quality can deteriorate during winter, our 'What three things?' PCRU article explains how important ventilation is even when trying to keep homes warm during the colder months. Further guidance on improving indoor air quality can be found in this PCRS resource on pollution and respiratory health, which covers, indoor cooking and heating, incense and candles, mould and radon exposure. This Asthma and Lung UK guide to improving air quality in the home provides lots of useful tips and suggestions aimed at patients and our podcast episode gives a patient perspective on air quality. Poor indoor air quality is also associated with poverty. See the PCRS video resource on poverty and poor housing to understand why this happens and what can be done.
4. Ensure patients with chronic lung conditions are taking their medications as prescribed
Use the first consultation in 2025 to make sure your patients understand the medications they are taking, the importance of taking them as prescribed and their inhaler technique, as poor inhaler technique is common in people with obstructive lung diseases. Check out our podcasts on inhaler use and inhaler therapies and inhaler technique in children and young people and our article on tailoring inhaler devices to help provide guidance to patients using inhalers.
5. Help people find ways to sit less and move more
Deconditioning is a concern for patients with chronic lung conditions who may not be able to distinguish appropriate shortness of breath due to exercise from breathlessness due to their underlying condition. The new year is an opportunity to discuss the importance of keeping lungs working and finding a level of exercise that suits them. This might be anything from armchair exercises to working towards a walking marathon. Encourage eligible patients to engage with pulmonary rehabilitation. See our helpful guide for communicating the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation to patients.
Useful resources
Smoking cessation
- PCRS Position Statement - Treatment of tobacco dependency
- The PCRS Tobacco Dependency Pragmatic Guide
- PCRS resource - Supporting a quit attempt
- Podcast - How to use VBA (Very Brief Advice) in a routine consultation (member only)
- PCRU article - Tobacco dependency is a long-term relapsing condition that usually starts in childhood
- The National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training: For online training and resources on evidence based smoking cessation
- PCRS COPD Campaign video: "It's never too late to quit"
- Podcast - Very Brief Advice (VBA)
- Podcast - Vaping and E-cigarettes
- Podcast - Top Tips for Smoking Cessation
Behaviour change
- Podcast - Supporting Behaviour Change (member only)
- PCRS in Conversation - How to Thrive with The Working Well Doctor
- Obesity and its Impact on Respiratory Health and Primary Care
- PCRU article - Tiny Habits for Big Changes
Air quality
- PCRS What three things? article: Which covers deteriorating indoor air quality during winter
- Asthma and Lung UK advice on improving air quality at home
- Podcast - Raising awareness of green issues in schools and housing (member only)
- PCRU article - Pollution its impact on Respiratory Health
- Learning module - Pollution and the Climate (member only)
- Podcast - Air Quality and Respiratory Disease from the Perspective of Patients (member only)
Movement and breathlessness
- Top tips for communicating the benefits of pulmonary rehabilitation to patients
- The Breathing Thinking Functioning Model to Support the Management of Breathlessness
Inhaler technique
- PCRS Respiratory Conference: Inhaler technique training for devices used in asthma
- Tailoring Inhaler Devices
- Podcast - Inhaler technique in children and young people
- Podcast - Let's talk inhaler technique
- PCRS Position Statement - Inhaler Switching