Table 1 Distribution of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics at baseline in randomised individuals according to treatment arm.
| Placebo | Selenium | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N | % | N | % | |
| Male | 98 | 44.90 | 99 | 30.30 |
| Current cigarette smoker | 98 | 30.61 | 99 | 30.30 |
| Rhinitis symptoms | 98 | 64.29 | 99 | 63.64 |
| Housing owned/mortgaged | 98 | 50.00 | 99 | 55.56 |
| Prescribed inhaled steroids | 98 | 92.86 | 99 | 92.93 |
| Taking inhaled steroids | 95 | 75.79 | 96 | 73.96 |
| Taking oral steroids | 95 | 3.16 | 96 | 1.04 |
| Taking non‐selenium supplements | 98 | 28.57 | 99 | 32.32 |
| N | Arithmetic mean | N | Arithmetic mean | |
| Age (years) | 98 | 40.73 | 99 | 40.00 |
| BMI (kg/m2) | 98 | 28.44 | 99 | 28.50 |
| QoL score (square root transformed) | 98 | 1.46 | 99 | 1.39 |
| FEV1 (l) | 98 | 2.64 | 99 | 2.66 |
| FEV1 (% predicted) | 98 | 76.67 | 99 | 79.70 |
| Daytime asthma symptom score | 90 | 1.08 | 95 | 0.85 |
| Night‐time asthma symptom score | 92 | 0.92 | 95 | 0.76 |
| Morning PEF (l/min) | 79 | 369.41 | 85 | 383.95 |
| Bronchodilator dose (puffs/day) | 95 | 2.82 | 96 | 2.26 |
BMI, body mass index; FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 s; PEF, peak expiratory flow QoL, quality of life.