Table 2 Health care utilization one year prior to index date in (A) all patients with mild to moderate and severe asthma and (B) in patients after exclusion of the patients with a concurrent COPD diagnosis. Age adjusted data presented as number and proportion (%) of the patients
A | B | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full study population | Asthma only (no COPD) | |||||
Mild to moderate (n = 17,934) | Severe (n = 790) | P value | Mild to moderate (n = 16,142) | Severe (n = 561) | P-value | |
Primary care visits (any reason) | ||||||
Visit to the doctor | 10,922 (60.9) | 464 (58.7) | 0.237 | 9553 (59.2) | 312. (55.7) | 0.100 |
Visits to the nurse | 8761 (48.9) | 376 (47.6) | 0.512 | 7555 (46.8) | 248 (44.1) | 0.242 |
Other visits | 4880 (27.2) | 216 (27.4) | 0.968 | 4065 (25.2) | 135 (23.7) | 0.458 |
Primary care visits because of asthma | ||||||
Visit to the doctor | 3819 (21.3) | 245 (31.0) | <0.001 | 3421 (21.2) | 179 (32.0) | <0.001 |
Visits to the nurse | 749 (4.2) | 53 (6.7) | 0.001 | 641 (4.0) | 36 (6.5) | 0.005 |
Other visits | 513 (2.9) | 37 (4.7) | 0.004 | 380 (2.4) | 23 (4.0) | 0.012 |
Outpatient hospital visits | ||||||
Any visit to specialist | 3644 (20.3) | 296 (37.5) | <0.001 | 3016 (18.7) | 197 (35.1) | <0.001 |
Visit to a specialist because of asthma | 1168 (6.5) | 165 (20.9) | <0.001 | 1068 (6.6) | 114 (20.3) | <0.001 |
Asthma related events | ||||||
Exacerbations because of asthma | 3182 (17.7) | 301 (38.0) | <0.001 | 2620 (16.2) | 196 (35.0) | <0.001 |
Oral steroids | 3111 (17.3) | 292 (36.9) | <0.001 | 2562 (15.9) | 190 (33.8) | <0.001 |
Hospitalizations because of asthma | 93 (0.5) | 21 (2.6) | <0.001 | 72 (0.4) | 14 (2.5) | <0.001 |
Emergency department visits because of asthma | 22 (0.1) | 2 (0.3) | 0.620 | 20 (0.1) | 2 (0.4) | 0.367 |