Table 1.

Synthesis 1: Individual experiences of asthma are shaped by diverse physical and social environments^a

Categories	Findings—the experience
The physical burden of asthma	Physical symptoms can be frightening “panicky,” “choking,” “I was fighting”65, 82 “breathing through a straw,” “suffocating,” “drowning”34
	Asthma symptoms are unpredictable “…Because some people you can [imitates someone gasping with an asthma attack] but sometimes I don't get that, I just have a very, very, tight, tight chest. And that's all the symptom I can get. So I'm not always, for the medical profession they have a sort of a check list…but not everyone meets that check list criteria every time.”34
	Diminished capacity “I want to take a deep breath comfortably. I want to run. You suffocate me when you are inside me”85 “It was terrible. I, I could not walk across a normal living space…I couldn't really live a normal life. I mean, when my asthma was bad it was just so bad I really, I, actually I didn't want to live because I just couldn't do anything.”32
Feeling judged by others	Feeling judged by family member “It's all in your head, mum”70
	Feeling judged by society “I do worry about what other people think about my asthma…I become concerned that they'll think, ‘Oh my goodness we've got somebody with asthma, what are we going to do?' And actually I just want to say to them, I'm fine and I can manage this. And I'll let you know if I'm not.”51
	Feeling judged by employer “You must be on the bitch medicine again”78 “this guy's going to be sick all the time, so we won't bother”47
	Feeling judged by health professional “When I was at the hospital…the doctor said ‘You're not sick, go home…' I didn't go there because I had a little scratch on my finger”67
	Experience overruled by medical authority “I tell him it's [medication] not working and he tells me he's the doctor”80
Judging oneself	Feeling guilty when wanting space from children due to asthma
	Questioning legitimacy of experience “It is illegitimate to call in sick because of asthma. It's just silly, right”;84 “Am I wasting everybody's time”63
	Delay seeking help because asthma not a “serious” condition “I call the ambulance… when my lips are blue; You don't feel sick enough if you call one [ambulance] yourself”64
	Feeling embarrassed about having asthma “I find it embarrassing to even have asthma”;70 “you think you are sort of decrepit if you're asthmatic”76
Age of diagnosis	Childhood diagnosis “It was round when I was about ten, I was playing sport. I used to play a lot of sport when I was younger. I still do now…Initially when I was to go back to it, I found it hard to breathe…and just, just wasn't able to keep up really. And then …your body does adjust even with the inhaler, you get used to it and you find yourself being able to sort of compete with everyone else, being as fit as everyone else.”31
	Adulthood diagnosis “I was really shocked [about being diagnosed with asthma], ‘cause I just thought ‘how can someone as fit as me get asthma?' [laughs].”32 “I realised that it wasn't just a matter of fitness, it was actually a medical condition that I had then. And that was when I had to, kind of admit to myself that I was a wheezy person…And I was really anti‐medicine. So I found it quite hard to take on board that I was an ill person that needed to take medicine…”32 Childhood diagnosis “it's [asthma] become second nature…once you get into it…you find yourself being able to sort of compete with everyone else…”31 “There are going to be anger management issues there and resentment that I don't so much have because… I've not known life without it.”32
Learned responses	Conditioning: learning from family experiences “smacked” as a child “for keeping people awake” [with her chronic cough];65 “It was always [name] and her cough ‐ we all just got used to it”69
	Conditioning: learning from personal experiences “Asthma is part of me like my bad temper”76

^aThe categories and themes reported in the following tables represent a synthesis of those reported by the authors of the original studies.