Causative and Contributive Factors to Asthma Severity and Patterns of Medication Use in Patients Seeking Specialized Asthma Care *

Assessment of inhaled corticosteroids use and associated factors among asthmatic patients attending Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia

“…The finding is in agreement with a study done in the US where 65% of the patients were using a dose of ICS below that recommended in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute guideline for asthma diagnosis and management [12]. However, the major difference between these two studies is that in the later study, most of the underutilization appeared to represent physicians’ recommendations.…”

Characterization of the severe asthma phenotype by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Severe Asthma Research Program

“…These results support smaller studies that have used similar methods of self-report to estimate prevalence of comorbid diseases in severe asthma. 19,[34][35][36][37] In our study, nearly 2/3 of the severe group reported a history of pneumonia and, except for baseline FEV 1 % predicted, pneumonia was the strongest independent predictor of severe asthma (OR, 3.30). Recurrent respiratory infections requiring antibiotics have been shown to be a risk factor (OR, 6.9) for severe exacerbations.…”

The Allergic Asthma Phenotype

“…[12][13][14] However, studies of patients with varying degrees of asthma severity report that allergic versus nonallergic asthma is less severe 1,2,5, [15][16][17][18] or that there is no association between severity and atopic status. [19][20][21][22] Other reports suggest that patients with allergic versus nonallergic asthma have less need for oral glucocorticosteroids. 1,2 In contrast, a study of severe asthma in schoolage children demonstrates that those with severe asthma have significantly greater sensitization to aeroallergens than children with mild-to-moderate asthma.…”