Personal characteristics and medication use in community-based current asthma population by severity (n = 351)
| Intermittent(n = 103) | Mild persistent(n = 98) | Moderate persistent(n = 92) | Severe persistent(n = 58) | Total(n = 351) | |
| Personal characteristics | |||||
| Female gender | 58 (56.3%) | 58 (59.2%) | 59 (64.1%) | 30 (51.7%) | 166 (47.3%) |
| Smoking status | |||||
| Never | 47 (45.6%) | 46 (46.9%) | 38 (41.3%) | 22 (37.9%) | 143 (40.7%) |
| Past | 34 (33.0%) | 28 (28.6%) | 22 (23.9%) | 12 (20.7%) | 106 (30.2%) |
| Current | 22 (21.4%) | 24 (24.5%) | 32 (34.8%) | 24 (41.4%) | 102 (29.1%) |
| Level of education* | |||||
| University degree | 24 (23.5%) | 16 (16.3%) | 13 (14.3%) | 12 (20.7%) | 70 (20.2%) |
| Trade/apprenticeship | 31 (30.4%) | 41 (41.8%) | 26 (28.6%) | 22 (37.9%) | 131 (37.9%) |
| Grade 10/11 | 41 (40.2%) | 35 (35.7%) | 41 (45.1%) | 17 (29.3%) | 123 (35.5%) |
| Grade 1–6 | 6 (5.9%) | 6 (6.1%) | 11 (12.1%) | 7 (12.1%) | 22 (6.4%) |
| Parents and/or siblings with asthma | 64 (62.1%) | 58 (59.2%) | 54 (58.7%) | 36 (62.1%) | 153 (43.6%) |
| Any allergies reported† | 86 (83.5%) | 75 (76.5%) | 80 (87.0%) | 44 (75.9%) | 248 (70.7%) |
| Medication use | |||||
| Any asthma medication last year | 82 (79.6%) | 79 (80.6%) | 83 (90.2%) | 55 (94.8%) | 299 (85.2%) |
| Adequate preventer medication use | 33 (32.0%) | 28 (28.6%) | 16 (17.4%) | 15 (25.9%) | 92 (26.2%) |
| Reliever medication | |||||
| Any reliever medication use | 77 (74.8%) | 72 (73.5%) | 73 (79.3%) | 52 (89.7%) | 274 (78.1%) |
| Short-acting β2 agonists | 76 (73.8%) | 72 (73.5%) | 73 (79.3%) | 52 (89.7%) | 273 (77.8%) |
| Anticholinergics | 3 (2.9%) | 0 (0.0%) | 4 (4.4%) | 4 (6.9%) | 11 (3.1%) |
| Preventer medication | |||||
| Any preventer medication use | 33 (32.0%) | 40 (40.8%) | 41 (44.6%) | 35 (60.3%) | 149 (42.5%) |
| Steroidal preventers | |||||
| ICS alone | 11 (10.7%) | 15 (15.3%) | 15 (16.3%) | 14 (24.1%) | 55 (15.7%) |
| Oral steroids | 3 (2.9%) | 3 (3.1%) | 2 (2.2%) | 4 (6.9%) | 12 (3.4%) |
| Non-steroidal preventers | |||||
| Oral antileukotrienes | 1 (1.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | 3 (5.2%) | 4 (1.1%) |
| Inhaled cromones | 0 (0.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | 1 (1.1%) | 1 (1.7%) | 2 (0.6%) |
| Symptom controllers | |||||
| LABAs | 1 (1.0%) | 2 (2.0%) | 0 (0.0%) | 1 (1.7%) | 4 (1.1%) |
| Combination therapy | |||||
| Combination ICS and LABAs | 22 (21.4%) | 25 (25.5%) | 25 (27.2%) | 21 (36.2%) | 93 (26.5%) |
Values shown are number (%).
ICS, inhaled corticosteroids; LABA, long-acting β2 agonist.
*Data missing for five participants.
†Allergic to food/dust/medicine/pets/pollens.