Late Breaking Abstract - The burden of intermittent oral corticosteroid use in asthma

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Oral corticosteroids (OCS) are widely prescribed for asthma exacerbations. Little is known of how intermittent OCS use relates to risk of adverse events (AEs). <b>Aim:</b> To assess the association between differing patterns of intermittent OCS use and AEs in patients with asthma. <b>Methods:</b> Retrospective cohort study of patients ≥4 years old using Optimum Patient Care Research Database. Patients were categorised by OCS prescribing pattern (only 1 prescription, &gt;1 with ≥90-day gap [less frequent] and &gt;1 with &lt;90-day gap [frequent]) and indexed on the first intermittent OCS prescription 3 months before/after an asthma-related event (medication, consultation and/or diagnosis). Patients with long-term OCS treatment, chronic conditions treated with OCS or AEs pre-index were excluded. The incident event was the first AE after the index date. Descriptive statistics are presented. <b>Results:</b> Of 1,367,745 total patients receiving an OCS prescription, 355,983 met the eligibility criteria (43% male; mean age 37 years; median follow-up 8.9 years). 38%, 26% and 36% had only 1, less frequent and frequent OCS prescriptions, respectively. The proportions of all new individual AEs were greater within categories of increasing intermittent OCS use (Table). <b>Conclusion:</b> Even among patients with only intermittent OCS use, more new OCS-related AEs were observed within categories of more frequent patterns of use.