Table 2.
Health care services and medication utilization related to severity
| Total n = 20,410 |
Mild intermittent n = 14,191 |
Mild Persistent n = 3680 |
Moderate Persistent n = 1408 |
Severe persistent n = 1131 |
p-valuea | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical services (n, %)b | ||||||
| ED visits* | 721 (3.5) | – | 462 (12.5) | 163 (11.5) | 96 (8.5) | < 0.001 |
| Mean (SD)c | 1.1 (0.5) | – | 1 (0) | 1.3 (0.5) | 1.4 (1.1) | |
| Hospitalizations* | 1137 (5.5) | – | 495 (13.4) | 278 (19.7) | 364 (32.1) | < 0.001 |
| Mean (SD)c | 1.6 (1.6) | – | 1 (0) | 1.5 (0.6) | 2.5 (2.6) | |
| Specialized physician visits | 5764 (28.2) | 3539 (24.9) | 1057 (28.7) | 578 (41.0) | 590 (52.1) | < 0.001 |
| General physician visits | 11,685 (57.2) | 8445 (59.5) | 1761 (47.8) | 755 (53.6) | 724 (64.1) | < 0.001 |
| Other ambulatory services | 1653 (8.1) | 1009 (7.1) | 297 (8.0) | 160 (11.3) | 187 (16.5) | < 0.001 |
| Total frequency of any medical service | 17,059 (83.5) | 11,933 (84.1) | 2923 (79.4) | 1167 (82.8) | 1036 (91.6) | 0.026 |
| Asthma medication prescriptions (n, %)b | ||||||
| Controller medications | ||||||
| ICS | 4841 (23.7) | 1777 (12.5) | 1410 (38.3) | 821 (58.3) | 833 (73.6) | < 0.001 |
| ICS + LABA | 487 (2.4) | 32 (0.2) | 88 (2.4) | 171 (12.1) | 196 (17.3) | < 0.001 |
| LABA | 188 (0.9) | 18 (0.1) | 65 (1.7) | 38 (2.7) | 67 (5.9) | < 0.001 |
| LM | 660 (3.2) | 0 (0) | 221 (6.0) | 154 (10.9) | 285 (25.2) | < 0.001 |
| Theophylline | 240 (1.1) | 36 (0.2) | 62 (1.6) | 63 (4.4) | 79 (6.9) | < 0.001 |
| Rescue Medications | ||||||
| Oral corticosteroids | 4594 (22.5) | 399 (2.8) | 2236 (60.7) | 998 (70.8) | 961 (84.9) | < 0.001 |
| SABA | 4911 (24.0) | 1242 (8.7) | 1798 (48.8) | 946 (67.2) | 925 (81.8) | < 0.001 |
| Total frequency of any medication | 9509 (46.6) | 3880 (27.3) | 3183 (86.5) | 1336 (94.9) | 1110 (98.1) | < 0.001 |
*For ED visits and hospitalizations trend analysis was conducted for mild to severe persistent categories
aCochran-Armitage test. P for trend is reported
bThe number of patients using each medical service is reported. Relative frequencies were calculated using the total number of subjects (N) for each column as denominator. Patients may have used more than one service in the cost analysis period
cMean number of times that a patient required to use this medical service during the cost analysis period
ED emergency department; ICS inhaled corticosteroids; ICS + LABA inhaled corticosteroids-long acting B2 agonist combination; LABA long acting B2 agonist; LM leukotriene modifiers; SABA short acting B2 agonist