Asthma manifests itself differently in children, adults and elderly people. In children, it is usually manifested as cough and wheeze; in adults, as paroxysmal attacks may continue, exertional dyspnoea (breathlessness on exertion) also set in due to the complications of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. 
 
While adult asthma patients feel normal between the attacks, older patients continue getting breathlessness on exertion even while they do not have the asthma attack.In older people, it is not easy to differentiate whether it is certainly a case of asthma because cough and breathlessness in this age-group are symptoms of many other diseases also.Those who first start getting asthma in their old age, fare far worse than those who have had the onset in their youth.