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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2022 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Med. 2022 Mar 21;28(4):814–822. doi: 10.1038/s41591-022-01714-5

Table 1.

Clinical characteristics of subjects in the large discovery epidemiologic cohort (EPIC-Norfolk), in the biobank and electronic medical record (EMR)-based replication cohorts (MGBB-Asthma, EMR-Cortisol) and in an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS)-randomized clinical trial (Childhood Asthma Management Program, CAMP)

Discovery cohort: EPIC-Norfolk
Number of subjects All subjects
(n = 10,754)
Asthma
(n = 661)
No asthma
(n = 10,093)
P-value*
Age, mean (SD) 59.73 (9.0) 59.24 (9.1) 59.76 (8.9) 0.14
BMI kg/m2, mean (SD) 26.19 (3.7) 26.10 (3.9) 26.20 (3.7) 0.53
Sex, n (%) 0.08
  Female 5,759 (53.6) 376 (56.9) 5,383 (53.3)
  Male 4,995 (46.4) 285 (43.1) 4,710 (46.7)
Race, n (%) 0.76
  African American 9 (0.1) 1 (0.2) 8 (0.1)
  White 10,684 (99.7) 655 (99.5) 10,029 (99.8)
  Asian 9 (0.1) 1 (0.2) 8 (0.1)
  Other 9 (0.1) 1 (0.2) 8 (0.1)
Smoking, n (%)
  Never 5,012 (46.6) 308 (46.6) 4,704 (46.6) 0.003
  Former 4,573 (42.5) 306 (46.3) 4,267 (42.3)
  Current 1,169(10.9) 47(7.1) 1,122(11.1)
Replication cohort: MGBB-Asthma
Number of subjects All subjects
(n = 610)
Asthma
(n = 287)
No asthma
(n = 323)
P-value*
Age, mean (SD) 32.7 (5.3) 33.1 (6.6) 32.4 (3.7) 0.11
BMI kg/m2, mean (SD) 25.6 (6.5) 28.3 (8.0) 23.2 (3.1) <2.2x10−16 2x10−16
Sex, n (%)
  Female 359 (58.9) 208 (72.5) 151 (46.7)
  Male 251 (41.1) 79 (27.5) 172 (53.3)
Race, n (%) 9.8x10−3
  African American 51 (8.4) 34 (11.8) 17 (5.3)
  White 475 (77.9) 222 (77.4) 253 (78.3)
  Asian 28 (4.6) 10 (3.5) 18 (5.6)
  Other 56 (9.2) 21 (7.3) 35 (10.8)
Inhaled corticosteroid intake, n (%) <2.2x10−16
  No 413 (67.7) 90 (31.4) 323 (100)
  Yes 172 (28.2) 172 (59.9) 0 (0)
Oral corticosteroid intake, n (%)
  No 265 (43.4) 265 (92.3) NA NA
  Yes 17 (2.8) 17 (5.9) NA NA
Asthma severity scale
  No mild, moderate or severe asthma 72 (11.8) 72 (25.1) NA NA
  Mild intermittent or persistent 146 (23.9) 146 (50.9) NA NA
  Moderate persistent 50 (8.2) 50 (17.4) NA NA
  Severe persistent 19 (3.1) 19 (6.6) NA NA
Smoking, n (%) 1.2x10−3
  No 482 (79) 210 (73.2) 272 (84.2)
  Yes 128 (21) 77 (26.8) 51 (15.8)
Validation cohort: Randomized clinical trial of ICS use - CAMP
Number of subjects All subjects
(n = 1041)
Baseline End of trial P-value*
(n = 560 at both time points)
Age, mean (SD) 8.8 (2.1) 8.8 (2.1) 12.8 (2.1) <2.2x10−16
BMI kg/m2, mean (SD) 18.1 (3.5) 18.0 (3.3) 21.2 (4.5) <2.2x10−16
Sex, n (%) NA
  Female 420 (40.3) 201 (35.9) 201 (35.9)
  Male 621 (59.7) 359 (64.1) 359 (64.1)
Race, n (%) NA
  African American 138 (13.3) 82 (14.6) 82 (14.6)
  White 711 (68.3) 395 (70.5) 395 (70.5)
  Hispanic 98 (9.4) 56 (10) 56 (10)
  Other 94 (9.0) 27 (4.8) 27 (4.8)
Treatment, Steroid use (%) NA
  Budesonide 311 (29.9) 151 (27) 151 (27)
  Nedocromil + Placebo 730 (70.1) 409 (73) 409 (73)
Validation cohort: Assessment of ICS effect in a clinical cohort EMR-Cortisol
Number of subjects All subjects
(n = 2,235)
Asthma
(n = 383)
No asthma
(n = 1,852)
P-value*
Age, mean (SD) 56.1 (16.2) 55.2 (16) 56.3 (16.3) 0.20
Sex, n (%) 3.9x10−14
  Female 1377 (61.6) 302 (78.9) 1075 (58.0)
  Male 858 (38.4) 81 (21.1) 777 (42.0)
Race, n (%) 1.4x10−3
  African American 122 (5.5) 34 (8.9) 88 (4.8)
  White 1959 (87.7) 317 (82.8) 1642 (88.7)
  Asian 52 (2.3) 7 (1.8) 45 (2.4)
  Other 102 (4.6) 25 (6.5) 77 (4.2
Inhaled steroid intake, n (%) <2.2x10−16
  No 2079 (93.0) 268 (70) 1811 (97.8)
  Yes 156 (7.0) 115 (30) 41 (2.2)
Adrenal Insufficiency diagnosis, n (%) 0.03
  No 1640 (73.4) 263 (68.7) 1377 (74.4)
  Yes 595 (26.6) 120 (31.3) 475 (25.6)

Missing data: In MGBB-Asthma, BMI was missing for seven subjects; inhaled steroid intake was missing for 25 subjects; oral corticosteroid intake (OCS) and asthma severity were only extracted for asthma cases (therefore corresponding P-values cannot be determined) and OCS was not available for five subjects. Data on inhaled and oral medications were not available in EPIC-Norfolk cohort.

Significance of difference was evaluated using chi-squared test for categorical variables and two-sample t-test for continuous variables. In CAMP, the categorical variables sex, race and treatment did not change with time point, therefore NA is indicated for P-values.

Abbreviations: BMI, body mass index; SD, standard deviation; CAMP, Childhood Asthma Management Program