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Updated: Dec 24, 2025
Bronchial Thermoplasty: A Novel Therapeutic Approach to Severe Asthma
Published on: November 4, 2010
Patterns of oral corticosteroids use in primary care patients with severe asthma
Davide L Vetrano1, Alberto Zucchelli2, Elisa Bianchini3
1Dept. of Geriatrics, Catholic University of Rome and IRCCS Fondazione Policlinico "A. Gemelli", Rome, Italy; Aging Research Center, Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Sweden.
Aim:
To assess the pattern of use of oral corticosteroids (OC) in primary care patients with severe asthma.
Methods:
Data derived from the Health Search Database (HSD) gathering information on 700 Italian general practitioners. A cohort of severe asthma patients was identified between 2013 and 2017 and followed-up for one year. The association between candidate predictors and the incident escalation to OC was tested through a multivariate Cox regression model.
Results:
Among patients with asthma (N = 55,075), 284 were diagnosed with severe asthma. Among them, the proportion of OC users decreased from 82.2% in 2013 to 75.3% in 2017. For what concerns the determinants of OC prescriptions, among 284 patients being defined at baseline (2013-2016) as those suffering from severe asthma, 216 (76.1%) were first-ever prescribed with OC at least once during one year of follow-up. The presence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (HR 1.37; 95% CI 1.02-1.85), osteoarthritis (HR 1.54; 95% CI 1.12-2.12) and moderate asthma exacerbations (HR 1.72; 95% CI 1-02-2.93) was significantly associated with the outcome.
Conclusions:
The optimization of asthma treatment and the management of comorbidities may be potential leverages to reduce the inappropriate use of OC in patients with severe asthma.
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