TABLE 1.

Baseline characteristics

	PICU		Paediatric ward		p-value
Subjects	110		111
Age years	110	8 (5–12)	111	5 (3–7)	<0.001
Preschoolers (age 2–4 years)	110	27 (25)	111	55 (50)	<0.001
Male	110	68 (62)	111	69 (62)	0.958
Caucasian	110	60 (55)	111	79 (71)	0.011
Asthma diagnosis prior to admission	110	84 (76)	111	79 (71)	0.380
Asthma treated by#					0.370
General practitioner	82	29 (35)	77	28 (36)
Paediatrician	82	31 (38)	77	22 (29)
Paediatric pulmonologist	82	22 (27)	77	27 (35)
Steroid naïve	110	56 (51)	111	67 (60)	0.157
ICS dose¶ μg	52	323±181	44	224±102	0.001
Adherence to ICS¶
PDC %	52	73±33	43	62±30	0.114
PDC ≥80%	52	30 (58)	43	16 (37)	0.047
Born <37 weeks’ gestational age	84	13 (15)	84	15 (18)	0.679
Highest parental education level					0.390
Low	82	3 (4)	84	1 (1)
Middle	82	35 (43)	84	31 (37)
High	82	44 (54)	84	52 (62)
SES scores+	110	−0.29±1.36	111	−0.25±1.28	0.824

Data are presented as n, median (interquartile range), n (%) or mean±sd, unless otherwise stated. Bold type represents statistical significance. PICU: paediatric intensive care unit; ICS: inhaled corticosteroids; PDC: proportion of days covered; SES: socioeconomic status. ^#: children with a diagnosis of asthma prior to admission. ^¶: of the children with prescribed ICS. ⁺: the postal code was used to quantify the neighbourhood SES, with a mean of zero. A lower (negative) score is associated with a lower SES.