Table 3.
Asthma-specific clinical and laboratory characteristics for the study subjects by subgroup
| NLP-PAC+/ NLP-API+ (n=1614) |
NLP-PAC+ only (n=954) | NLP-API+ only (n=105) | NLP-PAC−/ NLP-API− (n=5523) |
Total (n=8196) |
P value | |
| Asthma diagnosis | ||||||
| Physician diagnosed asthma, n (%) | 1123 (70) | 554 (58) | 2 (2) | N/A | 1679j (21) | <0.001 |
| Age at first physician diagnosis of asthma, years, mean (SD) | 4.3 (3.4) | 6.1 (4.3) | 8.8 (0.5) | N/A | 4.9j (3.8) | <0.001 |
| Age at asthma onset by PAC or API, years, mean (SD) | 3.3 3.2) |
4.6 (4.2) | 6.4 (4.8) | N/A | 3.9j (3.8) | <0.001 |
| Atopic status | ||||||
| Eczema, n (%) | 794 (49) | 127 (13) | 62 (59) | 1403 (25) | 2386 (29) | <0.001 |
| Allergic rhinitis, n (%) | 646 (40) | 150 (16) | 30 (29) | 660 (12) | 1486 (18) | <0.001 |
| Eosinophilia*, n (%) | 565 (35) | 120 (13) | 33 (31) | 905 (16) | 1623 (20) | <0.001 |
| Unavailable, n (%) | 527 (33) | 443 (46) | 30 (29) | 2740 (50) | 3740 (46) | |
| Total IgE (kU/L)>300, n (%) | 50 (3) | 8 (1) | 1 (1) | 19 (0) | 78 (1) | 0.02 |
| Unavailable, n (%) | 1438 (89) | 918 (96) | 97 (92) | 5387 (98) | 7840 (96) | |
| Elevated IgE to any aeroallergen†, n (%) | 59 (4) | 13 (1) | 1 (1) | 38 (1) | 111 (1) | 0.55 |
| Unavailable, n (%) | 1459 (90) | 922 (97) | 99 (94) | 5405 (98) | 7885 (96) | |
| Asthma outcomes | ||||||
| FEV1/FVC <0.85, n (%) | 346 (21) | 91 (10) | 4 (4) | 37 (1) | 478 (6) | <0.001 |
| Unavailable, n (%) | 1021 (63) | 756 (79) | 100 (95) | 5424 (98) | 7301 (89) | |
| Acute exacerbation of asthma, n (%) | 359 (22.2) | 72 (8) | 4 (4) | N/A | 435j (16) | <0.001 |
| HEDIS-defined persistent asthma, n (%) | 423 (26) | 112 (12) | 1 (1) | N/A | 53§ (20) | <0.001 |
| Asthma-associated Infectious and inflammatory multimorbidities | ||||||
| Pneumonia, n (%) | 539 (33) | 245 (26) | 23 (22) | 764 (14) | 1571 (19) | <0.001 |
| Tympanostomy tube, n (%) | 192 (12) | 80 (8) | 13 (12) | 337 (6) | 622 (8) | <0.001 |
| Pertussis, n (%) | 39 (2) | 18 (2) | 5 (5) | 71 (1) | 133 (2) | <0.001 |
| Zoster, n (%) | 37 (2) | 14 (2) | 3 (3) | 77 (1) | 131 (2) | 0.05 |
| Appendicitis, n (%) | 30 (2) | 9 (1) | 8 (8) | 67 (1) | 114 (1) | <0.001 |
| Frequency of viral infection per year, mean (SD) | 0.67 (0.43) | 0.51 (0.34) | 0.50 (0.42) | 0.32 (0.28) | 0.41 (0.35) | <0.001 |
| Frequency of strep infection‡ per year, mean (SD) | 0.15 (0.18) | 0.14 (0.18) | 0.13 (0.15) | 0.12 (0.16) | 0.13 (0.17) | <0.001 |
| Coeliac disease, n (%) | 21 (1) | 5 (1) | 0 (0) | 44 (1) | 70 (1) | 0.10 |
The percentage of each variable was calculated with the number of each group (column %).
*Eosinophilia defined by >300/µL (PAC) or ≥4% (API).
†Elevated IgE defined by >0.35 kU/L to any aeroallergen among alternaria tenuis, cat epithelium, dog dander, house dust mite/D.F., house dust mite/D.P., elm, oak, short ragweed and timothy grass.
‡Strep infection, Streptococcus pyogenes upper respiratory infection.
§Physician-diagnosed asthma, age at first physician diagnosis of asthma, age at asthma onset by PAC or API, acute exacerbation of asthma and HEDIS-defined persistent asthma for NLP-PAC−/NLP-API− group are not available; p values were calculated among asthmatic group, n=2673 (NLP-PAC+/NLP-API+, NLP-PAC+ only and NLP-API+ only).
FEV1, forced expiratory volume in 1 s; FVC, forced vital capacity; HEDIS, Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set; NLP-API, NLP algorithms for Asthma Predictive Index; NLP-PAC, NLP algorithms for Predetermined Asthma Criteria.