Table 3.

Characteristics of PA study patients by presence/absence of SABA prescription during the visit

	Total (N = 4609)		Absence of SABA prescription (N = 3939)		Presence of SABA prescription (N = 670)		P valuec
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Patients characteristics
Sex
Female	2723	59.1	2349	59.6	374	55.8	0.0635
Age classes
Age < 18 years	237	5.1	158	4.0	79	11.8	< 0.0001
18 years ≤ age < 40 years	2099	45.5	1795	45.6	304	45.4
40 years ≤ age < 65 years	1762	38.2	1549	39.3	213	31.8
Age ≥ 65 years	511	11.1	437	11.1	74	11.0
Body mass index
Underweight/normal weight	2887	62.6	2431	61.7	456	68.1	0.0072
Overweight	1432	31.1	1255	31.9	177	26.4
Obese—Class I, II, III	290	6.3	253	6.4	37	5.5
Smoking habits
Smokers	941	20.4	834	21.2	107	16.0	0.0020
Treatment step
Step 1	862	18.7	617	15.7	245	36.6	< 0.0001
Step 2	2004	43.5	1769	44.9	235	35.1
Step 3	1476	32.0	1302	33.1	174	26.0
Steps 4–5	267	5.8	251	6.4	16	2.4
Level of asthma control
Controlled	2045	44.4	1691	42.9	354	52.8	< 0.0001
Partially controlled	1345	29.2	1175	29.8	170	25.4
Uncontrolled	1219	26.5	1073	27.2	146	21.8
Asthma type
Allergic	2762	59.9	2342	59.5	420	62.7	0.0049
Non-allergic	1278	27.7	1125	28.6	153	22.8
Mixed	569	12.4	472	12.0	97	14.5
FEV1a
Mean (SD)	80.5	(12.5)	79.8	(12.4)	84.5	(12.2)	< 0.0001
PEFb
Mean (SD)	81.1	(13.6)	80.7	(13.5)	83.5	(14.1)	0.0015

SABA short-acting β₂-agonists, FEV₁ forced expiratory volume in 1 s, PEF peak expiratory flow

^aCalculated on the basis of 3175 patients with FEV₁ value available

^bCalculated on the basis of 2133 patients with PEF value available

^cP value from chi-square test or t test as appropriate