TABLE 3.
Respiratory drug use and healthcare use in the 12 months preceding and in the 12 months following omalizumab initiation (overall population and stratified into patients fulfilling eligibility criteria versus those who did not)
| Patients initiating treatment with omalizumab (n=1681) | Patients eligible for omalizumab treatment (n=380) | Patients not eligible for omalizumab treatment (n=1301) | ||||||||||
| YB | YA | YA−YB | p-value | YB | YA | YA−YB | p-value | YB | YA | YA−YB | p-value | |
| Patients visiting ED and treated with SCS | 68 (4%) | 32 (2%) | −2% | 0.0002# | 34 (9%) | 12 (3%) | −6% | 0.0009# | 34 (3%) | 20 (2%) | −1% | 0.0433# |
| Patients hospitalised and treated with SCS | 404 (24%) | 258 (15%) | −9% | <0.0001# | 154 (41%) | 78 (21%) | −20% | <0.0001# | 250 (19%) | 180 (14%) | −5% | <0.0001# |
| Patients treated with SCS as maintenance treatment (>180 DDD per year) | 520 (31%) | 327 (19%) | −11% | <0.0001# | 220 (58%) | 135 (36%) | −22% | <0.0001# | 300 (23%) | 192 (15%) | −8% | <0.0001# |
| DDD of respiratory drugs per patient per year median | ||||||||||||
| ICS (with or without LABA) | 230 | 211 | 0 | 0.3981¶ | 390 | 378 | −30 | 0.0009¶ | 180 | 180 | 0 | 0.2082¶ |
| Rescue therapy (SABA and/or SAMA) | 85 | 67 | 0 | <0.0002¶ | 173 | 140 | −6 | 0.2217¶ | 75 | 50 | 0 | 0.0003¶ |
| LTRAs | 140 | 98 | 0 | 0.0528¶ | 258 | 241 | 0 | 0.0334¶ | 99 | 98 | 0 | 0.2998¶ |
| Number of consultations median | ||||||||||||
| Pulmonary physician | 3 | 9 | 4 | <0.0001¶ | 4 | 10 | 5 | <0.0001¶ | 3 | 8 | 4 | <0.0001¶ |
| Other physicians | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0.0891¶ | 13 | 12 | −1 | 0.0249¶ | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0.5037¶ |
YB: 12 months before omalizumab initiation; YA: 12 months after omalizumab initiation; ED: emergency department; SCS: systemic corticosteroid; DDD: defined daily dose; ICS: inhaled corticosteroid; LABA: long-acting β2-agonist; SABA: short-acting β2-agonist; SAMA: short-acting muscarinic antagonist; LTRA: leukotriene receptor antagonist. #: McNemar test; ¶: Wilcoxon rank-sum test.