Provision of inhaled corticosteroids is associated with decrease in hospital admissions in Brazil: A longitudinal nationwide study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe trends of hospital admissions due to asthma from 2008 to 2015 and to evaluate their relationship with trends of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) provision by the government in Brazil. METHODS: We used Brazilian Government data to calculate hospital admission rates due to asthma, number of physicians, number of hospital beds, number of subjects that received ICS per 100,000 inhabitants in Brazil and in each of its municipalities for each year of the study. We performed Poisson Multilevel Regression Analyses to evaluate the relationship between the trends of hospital admission rates due to asthma with the trends of the number of subjects that had been receiving ICS during the study period. The analyses were adjusted for the number of physicians and hospital beds. FINDINGS: The number of patients who received ICS/100,000 inhabitants increased from 2008 to 2015 (943.9-1988.5). Hospital admissions/100,000 inhabitants decreased in patients aged 5-14 years (148.3-110.9) and in patients aged 15-39 years (59.9-32.3); the reduction was greater in municipalities in which ICS provision increased. The number of physicians/100,000 inhabitants increased and the number of hospital beds/100,000 inhabitants decreased in the study period. The increase in the number of physicians and in the number of subjects that received ICS were associated with reduction in hospital admissions. CONCLUSION: We found that provision of ICS by the Brazilian Government was associated with a decrease of hospital admissions for asthma in the municipalities and country levels from 2008 to 2015.

Asthma similarities across ProAR (Brazil) and U-BIOPRED (Europe) adult cohorts of contrasting locations, ethnicity and socioeconomic status.

BACKGROUND: Asthma prevalence is 339 million globally. 'Severe asthma' (SA) comprises subjects with uncontrolled asthma despite proper management. OBJECTIVES: To compare asthma from diverse ethnicities and environments. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis of two adult cohorts, a Brazilian (ProAR) and a European (U-BIOPRED). U-BIOPRED comprised of 311 non-smoking with Severe Asthma (SAn), 110 smokers or ex-smokers with SA (SAs) and 88 mild to moderate asthmatics (MMA) while ProAR included 544 SA and 452 MMA. Although these projects were independent, there were similarities in objectives and methodology, with ProAR adopting operating procedures of U-BIOPRED. RESULTS: Among SA subjects, age, weight, proportion of former smokers and FEV1 pre-bronchodilator were similar. The proportion of SA with a positive skin prick tests (SPT) to aeroallergens, the scores of sino-nasal symptoms and quality of life were comparable. In addition, blood eosinophil counts (EOS) and the % of subjects with EOS > 300 cells/µl were not different. The Europeans with SA however, were more severe with a greater proportion of continuous oral corticosteroids (OCS), worse symptoms and more frequent exacerbations. FEV1/FVC pre- and post-bronchodilator were lower among the Europeans. The MMA cohorts were less comparable in control and treatment, but similar in the proportion of allergic rhinitis, gastroesophageal reflux disease and EOS >3%. CONCLUSIONS: ProAR and U-BIOPRED cohorts, with varying severity, ethnicity and environment have similarities, which provide the basis for global external validation of asthma phenotypes. This should stimulate collaboration between asthma consortia with the aim of understanding SA, which will lead to better management.