Table 1.
Baseline demographics and clinical characteristics of UK patients with asthma receiving intermittent OCS
| Non-OCS (never users) n=476 167* | Any OCS n=476 167 (100%) | One-off OCS n=198 422 (41.7%) | Less frequent OCS† n=127 419 (26.8%) | Frequent OCS‡ n=150 326 (31.6%) | |
| Age, mean, years (SD) | 38.1 (22.4) | 38.1 (22.4) | 35.6 (22.3) | 36.9 (22.1) | 42.4 (22.2) |
| Age category, n (%) | |||||
| 4–<12 years | 76 859 (16.1) | 77.131 (16.2) | 35 478 (17.9) | 22 568 (17.7) | 19 085 (12.7) |
| 12–<18 years | 36 329 (7.6) | 36 262 (7.6) | 19 336 (9.7) | 9518 (7.5) | 7408 (4.9) |
| 18–<65 years | 292 846 (61.5) | 292 778 (61.5) | 118 163 (59.6) | 78 572 (61.7) | 96 043 (63.9) |
| ≥65 years | 70 133 (14.7) | 69 996 (14.7) | 25 445 (12.8) | 16 761 (13.2) | 27 790 (18.5) |
| Female, % | 55.7 | 55.7 | 51.8 | 56.3 | 60.2 |
| Follow-up, median, years (IQR) | 9.0 (4.7, 14.7) | 8.3 (4.2, 13.7) | 6.4 (3.1, 11.5) | 9.8 (5.6, 14.9) | 9.6 (5.1, 15.2) |
| Time in database pre index, median, years (IQR) | 16.8 (7.8, 30.4) | 17.0 (7.5, 31.1) | 15.1 (6.9, 28.3) | 16.2 (7.2, 30.1) | 20.6 (9.1, 34.9) |
| BMI | |||||
| Underweight, n (%) | 23 904 (5.0) | 35 998 (7.6) | 15 159 (7.6) | 10 257 (8.0) | 10 553 (7.0) |
| Normal, n (%) | 144 517 (30.4) | 138 469 (29.1) | 56 728 (28.6) | 37 665 (29.6) | 44 061 (29.3) |
| Overweight, n (%) | 102 328 (21.5) | 109 042 (22.9) | 42 521 (21.4) | 28 899 (22.7) | 37 612 (25.0) |
| Obese, n (%) | 66 473 (14.0) | 100 995 (21.2) | 36 410 (18.3) | 26 529 (20.8) | 38 048 (25.3) |
| Unknown, n (%) | 138 946 (29.2) | 91 710 (19.3) | 47 601 (24.0) | 24 057 (18.9) | 20 038 (13.3) |
| Mean (SD) | 25.8 (5.9) | 26.6 (7.0) | 26.2 (6.8) | 26.5 (6.9) | 27.2 (7.1) |
| Smoking status, n (%§) | |||||
| Never | 135 708 (28.5) | 141 231 (29.7) | 60 921 (30.7) | 37 512 (29.4) | 42 813 (28.5) |
| Current | 117 089 (24.6) | 131 851 (27.7) | 53 508 (27.0) | 34 951 (27.4) | 43 384 (28.9) |
| Ex | 67 711 (14.2) | 84 377 (17.7) | 33 951 (17.1) | 21 075 (16.5) | 29 375 (19.5) |
| Unknown | 155 659 (32.7) | 118 708 (24.9) | 50 042 (25.2) | 33 881 (26.6) | 34 754 (23.1) |
| SABA prescriptions; n (%) | |||||
| 0 | 470 929 (98.9) | 113 262 (23.8) | 44 766 (22.6) | 30 987 (24.3) | 37 507 (25.0) |
| 1–2 | 3524 (0.7) | 213 594 (44.9) | 96 751 (48.8) | 55 660 (43.7) | 61 183 (40.7) |
| 3–11 | 1476 (0.3) | 133 255 (28.0) | 51 519 (26.0) | 36 602 (28.7) | 45 134 (30.0) |
| ≥12 | 238 (0.0) | 16 056 (3.4) | 5384 (2.7) | 4170 (3.3) | 6502 (4.3) |
| ICS prescriptions; n (%) | |||||
| 0 | 472 462 (99.2) | 191 141 (40.1) | 80 403 (40.5) | 50 177 (39.4) | 60 560 (40.3) |
| 1–3 | 2354 (0.5) | 183 159 (38.5) | 79 561 (40.1) | 50 015 (39.2) | 53 583 (35.6) |
| 4–6 | 747 (0.2) | 59 230 (12.4) | 22 712 (11.4) | 16 260 (12.8) | 20 258 (13.5) |
| 7–9 | 310 (0.1) | 23 952 (5.0) | 8874 (4.5) | 6315 (4.9) | 8763 (5.8) |
| 10–12 | 179 (0.0) | 11 968 (2.5) | 4393 (2.2) | 3043 (2.4) | 4532 (3.0) |
| ≥13 | 115 (0.0) | 6718 (1.4) | 2479 (1.2) | 1609 (1.3) | 2630 (1.7) |
*Non-OCS patients were matched with all patients receiving OCS prescriptions according to 1:1 ratio.
†Patients who received all OCS prescriptions with a gap of ≥90 days.
‡Patients who received at least some OCS prescriptions with a gap of <90 days, allowing for other prescription gaps to be ≥90 days.
§Only the percentages of patient with known smoking status were calculated.
BMI, body mass index; ICS, inhaled corticosteroid; OCS, oral corticosteroid; SABA, short-acting β2 agonist.