Table 1.
Patient characteristics of all acute asthma presentations.
| Characteristic | All presentations, n=38 | Probable thunderstorm asthma * , n=18 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waikato Hospital ED, n=14 | Anglesea Urgent Care, n=24 | |||
| Age (median, range) | 26 (1–61) | 31 (19–61) | 15 (1–50) | 35 (1–61) |
| Sex (female, %) | 24 (63) | 8 (57) | 16 (37) | 11 (61) |
| Ethnicity † (n,%) | ||||
| NZ European | 11(29) | 2 (14) | 9 (38) | 2 (11) |
| Maori and PI | 9 (24) | 4 (29) | 5 (21) | 2 (11) |
| Asian/Indian | 15 (39) | 8 (57) | 7 (29) | 13 (73) |
| Others | 3 (8) | 0 (0) | 3 (13) | 1 (6) |
| Smoking history (n,%) | ||||
| Never | 35 (92) | 11 (79) | 24 (100) | 17 (95) |
| Current | 3 (8) | 3 (22) | 0 (0) | 1 (5) |
| Previous diagnosis of allergic rhinitis (n,%) | 18 (48) | 8 (57) | 10 (42) | 18 (100) |
| Previous diagnosis of asthma (n, %) | 20 (53) | 6 (43) | 14 (58) | 0 (0) |
| Asthma treatment at the time of presentation (n, %) | ||||
| SABA monotherapy | 5 (25) | 2 (33) | 3 (22) | |
| ICS monotherapy | 6 (30) | 2 (33) | 4 (29) | |
| ICS/LABA | 6 (30) | 2 (33) | 3 (22) | |
| None | 3 (15) | 0 (0) | 3 (22) | |
*
Patients were deemed to have probable thunderstorm asthma if they have all of the following: no previous diagnosis of asthma, a diagnosis of allergic rhinitis, and presented for the first time with asthma symptoms within 24 h of weather event.
†
Ethnicity data were extracted from the medical records using the National Health Index entry. Other ethnicities include African, Middle Eastern, and mixed.
ED, emergency department; ICS, inhaled corticosteroid; LABA, long‐acting beta‐2 agonist; NZ, New Zealand; PI, Pacific Island; SABA, short‐acting beta‐2 agonist.