Skip to main content
. 2011 Apr 28;4:37–47. doi: 10.2147/JAA.S17709

Table 2.

Asthma-related measures and medical resource use of the initiation and step-up populations during the baseline year

Initiation population (N = 56,347)
Step-up population (N = 9169)
pMDI (N = 39,746) BAI (N = 9809) DPI (N = 6792) P-value pMDI (N = 6245) BAI (N = 1388) DPI (N = 1536) P-value
Asthma diagnosis in database % predicted PEF [no. (%) with data] % 36,943 (92.9) 9101 (92.8) 6284 (92.5) 0.421 6107 (97.8) 1366 (98.4) 1505 (98.0) 0.331
[5660 (14.2)] [1449 (14.8)] [945 (13.9)] <0.001 [1421 (22.8)] [346 (24.9)] [389 (25.3)] 0.114
73.3 (55.6–85.8) 73.4 (56.7–87.0) 68.3 (50.0–83.4) 72.3 (50.7–87.2) 70.4 (54.5–86.3) 68.8 (50.7–83.4)
Asthma prescriptions 1 (0–2) 1 (0–2) 1 (0–2) 0.115 4 (2–7) 4 (2–6) 4 (2–7) <0.001
Asthma consultations
  0 17,724 (44.6) 4064 (41.4) 2925 (43.1) <0.001 1237 (19.8) 283 (20.4) 287 (18.7) 0.590
  1 11,758 (29.6) 3023 (30.8) 2046 (30.1) 1454 (23.3) 312 (22.5) 377 (24.5)
  2 5772 (14.5) 1539(15.7) 1020 (15.0) 1318 (21.1) 315 (22.7) 322 (21.0)
  ≥3 4492 (11.3) 1183 (12.1) 801 (11.8) 2236 (35.8) 478 (34.4) 550 (35.8)
Asthma consultations, no OCS
  0 19,572 (49.2) 4541 (46.3) 3224 (47.5) <0.001 1687 (27.0) 350 (25.2) 363 (23.6) 0.005
  1 11,384 (28.6) 2913 (29.7) 1986 (29.2) 1655 (26.5) 337 (24.3) 418 (27.2)
  2 5126 (12.9) 1392 (14.2) 931 (13.7) 1204 (19.3) 319 (23.0) 305 (19.9)
  ≥3 3664 (9.2) 963 (9.8) 651 (9.6) 1699 (27.2) 382 (27.5) 450 (29.3)
Prescribed SABA inhalers
  0 19,082 (48.0) 4682 (47.7) 3549 (52.3) <0.001 245 (3.9) 65 (4.7) 101 (6.6) <0.001
  1 11,601 (29.2) 3015 (30.7) 1947 (28.7) 1412 (22.6) 368 (26.5) 371 (24.2)
  2 4792 (12.1) 1131 (11.5) 688 (10.1) 1370 (21.9) 340 (24.5) 353 (23.0)
  ≥3 4271 (10.7) 981 (10.0) 608 (9.0) 3218 (51.5) 615 (44.3) 711 (46.3)
Antibiotic prescription, none 32,932 (82.9) 8038 (81.9) 5703 (84.0) 0.009 4883 (78.2) 1126 (81.1) 1225 (79.8) 0.122
  One or more 6814 (17.1) 1771 (18.1) 1089 (16.0) 1362 (21.8) 262 (18.9) 311 (20.2)
Oral corticosteroid courses
  0 35,559 (89.5) 8726 (89.0) 6047 (89.0) 0.791 4540 (72.7) 1095 (78.9) 1179 (76.8) <0.001
  1 3478 (8.8) 902 (9.2) 615 (9.1) 1107 (17.7) 213 (15.3) 235 (15.3)
  ≥2 709 (1.8) 181 (1.8) 130 (1.9) 598 (9.6) 80 (5.8) 122 (7.9)
Severe exacerbations
  0 35,529 (89.4) 8718 (88.9) 6042 (89.0) 0.765 4525 (72.5) 1093 (78.7) 1172 (76.3) <0.001
  1 3489 (8.8) 908 (9.3) 618 (9.1) 1099 (17.6) 214 (15.4) 239 (15.6)
  2 544 (1.4) 137 (1.4) 96 (1.4) 380 (6.1) 57 (4.1) 76 (4.9)
  ≥3 184 (0.5) 46 (0.5) 36 (0.5) 241 (3.9) 24 (1.7) 49 (3.2)
≥1 Hospitalization for asthmaa 51 (0.1) 10 (0.1) 8 (0.1) 0.794 46 (0.7) 3 (0.2) 11 (0.7) 0.089
Asthma controlb 30,129 (75.8) 7328 (74.7) 5205 (76.6) 0.013 3727 (59.7) 927 (66.8) 977 (63.6) <0.001

Notes: Values shown are n (%) or median (interquartile range). P-values for comparison among the three cohorts calculated with χ2 test for categorical data, Kruskal–Wallis test for continuous data;

a

Recorded hospital attendance for asthma including admission, A&E attendance, out-of-hours attendance, or outpatient attendance;

b

The primary measure of asthma control was defined as no hospital attendance for asthma, oral corticosteroid course, or antibiotics for lower respiratory infection.

Abbreviations: BAI, breath-actuated inhaler; DPI, dry powder inhaler; OCS, oral corticosteroid; PEF, peak expiratory flow; pMDI, pressurized metered-dose inhaler; SABA, short-acting β2 agonist.