Extent, trends, and determinants of controller/reliever balance in mild asthma: a 14-year population-based study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The majority of patients with asthma have the mild form of the disease. Whether mild asthma patients receive appropriate asthma medications has not received much attention in the literature. We examined the trends in indicators of controller/reliever balance.

Methods

Using administrative health databases of British Columbia, Canada (2000 to 2013), we created a population-based cohort of adolescents/adults with mild asthma using validated case definition algorithms. Each patient-year of follow-up was assessed based on two markers of inappropriate medication prescription: whether the ratio of controller medications (inhaled corticosteroids [ICS] and leukotriene receptor antagonists [LTRA]) to total asthma-related prescriptions was low (cut-off 0.5 according to previ

SUBMITTER: Khakban A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6394061 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature