Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of the patients by age and group
| Characteristics | Adults (18 years and older) | Children (7 – 18 years) | ||||||
| Control N = 27 | Intervention N = 26 | Control N = 27 | Intervention N = 29 | |||||
| mean (sd) | ||||||||
| age | 45.90 | (15.9) | 45.65 | (11.3) | 10.85 | (2.3) | 10.57 | (2.1) |
| lung function values | ||||||||
| - FVC % pred | 102.5 | (15.3) | 104.2 | (14.7) | 98.7 | (17.7) | 96.5 | (13.7) |
| - FEV1 % pred | 92.4 | (19.9) | 92.6 | (21.4) | 99.4 | (11.3) | 96.5 | (8.4) |
| - FEV1 % VC ref | 75.2 | (10.4) | 73.0 | (12.8) | 84.1 | (9.8) | 82.4 | (8.9) |
| - PEF % pred | 99.3 | (23.8) | 108.4 | (42.9) | 91.7 | (14.9) | 91.3 | (16.0) |
| GINA classification | 2.74 | (0.7) | 2.96 | (0.5) | 2.07 | (0.7) | 2.31 | (0.8) |
| Gender | ||||||||
| - male | 33.3 | % | 42.3 | % | 55.6 | % | 72.4 | % |
| - female | 66.7 | % | 57.7 | % | 44.4 | % | 27.6 | % |
| civil status | ||||||||
| - single | 22.2 | % | 7.7 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % |
| - with parents | 7.4 | % | 0 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
| - married/living together | 77.4 | % | 92.3 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % |
| main daily activity | ||||||||
| - paid employment | 44.4 | % | 65.4 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % |
| - sick leave/disabled | 25.9 | % | 11.5 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % |
| - school/college | 3.7 | % | 0.0 | % | 100 | % | 100 | % |
| - housekeeping | 11.1 | % | 7.7 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % |
| - other | 14.8 | % | 15.4 | % | 0 | % | 0 | % |
FVC % pred = forced vital capacity expressed as a percentage of predicted; FEV1 % pred = forced expiratory volume in 1 second expressed as a percentage of predicted; FEV1 % VC ref = forced expiratory volume expressed as a percentage of predicted/vital capacity; PEF % pred = peak expiratory flow expressed as a percentage of predicted. GINA classification based on prescribed medication; 1 = intermittent asthma, 2 = persistently mild asthma, 3 = persistently moderate asthma, 4 = persistently severe asthma.