Table II.
Comparison of treatment efficacy between the three patient groups.
| Statistical analysisa | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable/group | Oral montelukast (Group A) (n=80) | Inhaled fluticasone propionate (Group B) (n=82) | Inhaled budesonide (Group C) (n=77) | Overall | Post-hoc test P-value |
| Duration of breathing | 1.66±2.36 | 0.95±1.87 | 0.92±1.91 | P=0.038 | 0.074c |
| (days) | F=3.29 | 0.064d | |||
| 0.994e | |||||
| Number of inhalations | 0.80±1.07 | 0.47±0.90 | 0.45±0.86 | P=0.034 | 0.070c |
| (time) | F=3.42 | 0.056d | |||
| 0.990e | |||||
| Number of emergency | 0.41±0.83 | 0.18±0.47 | 0.18±0.6 | P=0.037 | 0.064c |
| visits | F=3.33 | 0.070d | |||
| 0.994e | |||||
| Daily cost of treatment | 2.11±0.53 | 1.18±0.55 | 4.24±0.68 | P<0.00001 | <0.00001c |
| (yuan) | F=559.52 | <0.00001d | |||
| <0.00001e | |||||
| Patient compliance (percentage, %) | 87.9% | 73.2% | 70.0% | 0.017b | |
| Accumulated down time | 0.91±1.38 | 0.59±1.35 | 0.52±1.14 | P=0.132 | 0.260c |
| (days) | F=2.03 | 0.145d | |||
| 0.938e | |||||
All data, apart from those for patient compliance (which are presented as percentages), are presented as the mean ± standard deviation.
a
Analysis by one-way ANOVA (for continuous variables; means ± SD) followed by Tukey's honestly significant difference test and the
b
Chi-squared test (for nominal data).
c
Group A vs. group B
d
Group A vs. group C
e
Group B vs. group C.