Cookie Notice

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Review our cookies information for more details.

OK
skip to main content

Burden of severe asthma in France

Published online: January 24, 2019

Asthma complications and mortality have dramatically improved in the last decades with effective drugs which can be delivered by inhalation. However, some patients do have a disease that needs high doses of these medications, which define them as having a severe form of asthma.

In this publication of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, Bourdin et al report an original study describing the burden of severe asthma (SA) in France by using a National claim and hospitalization database. A cohort of SA patients identified in 2012 was extracted from the database and followed for three years. Their characteristics, comorbidities, mortality and direct costs were compared with a matched control group without asthma.

The authors found that several comorbidities, especially cardiovascular (hypertension, dyslipidaemia, diabetes, cardiac failure, ischemic heart disease, etc.) are more frequently present in severe asthma patients. It appears that most of these conditions are also classical long-term complications of oral corticosteroids (OCS). Indeed, 9% of the severe asthma patients identified in this study received ≥6 dispensing of OCS.

Moreover, the mortality rate was also found to be significantly higher in these patients.
This study highlights the needs for new efficacious treatments that could lead to improved symptom control and reduce the need for OCS.

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice is an official journal of the AAAAI, focusing on practical information for the practicing clinician.