High incidence of oral corticosteroids prescriptions in children with asthma in early childhood

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flowchart of the prescribed medications and OCS for our study population. ^*If the difference between two OCS prescriptions were less than 10 days, it counted as continuing of the previous course of treatment.

Table 1. Characteristics of the population.

Male gender, %	65.3%
Median age at extraction dates (IQR)^1	8.3 (6.0 – 10.7)
[Mean]	[8.3]
Prescribed beta-adrenoreceptor agonists, %	98.0%
Prescribed SABA^2, %	97.4%
Prescribed LABA^3, %	28.9%
Prescribed ICS^4, %	93.9%
Prescribed Leukotriene receptor antagonists, %	12.5%
Prescribed OCS^5, %	25.7%

¹ Interquartile range

² Short-acting beta2-agonists

³ Long-acting beta-agonists

⁴ Inhaled corticosteroids

⁵ Oral corticosteroids

Figure 2. Incidence rates for (a) first, (b) second and (c) third OCS prescriptions.

Figure 3. Probability of receiving OCS prescriptions (a) per age category in the total population and stratified per sex; (b) after first prescription. Follow-up time in years after first OCS prescription; (c) after 2nd prescription. Follow-up time in years after 2nd OCS prescription. “Time = 0” is the time of previous OCS prescription.