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Asthma prescribing, ethnicity and risk of hospital admission: an analysis of 35,864 linked primary and secondary care records in East London

Hull, SA; McKibben, S; Homer, K; Taylor, SJ; Pike, K; Griffiths, C; (2016) Asthma prescribing, ethnicity and risk of hospital admission: an analysis of 35,864 linked primary and secondary care records in East London. NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine , 26 , Article 16049. 10.1038/npjpcrm.2016.49. Green open access

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Abstract

Inappropriate prescribing in primary care was implicated in nearly half of asthma deaths reviewed in the UK's recent National Review of Asthma Deaths. Using anonymised EMIS-Web data for 139 ethnically diverse general practices (total population 942,511) extracted from the North and East London Commissioning Support Unit, which holds hospital Secondary Uses Services (SUS)-linked data, we examined the prevalence of over-prescribing of short-acting β2-agonist inhalers (SABA), under-prescribing of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) inhalers and solo prescribing of long-acting β2-agonists (LABA) to assess the risk of hospitalisation for people with asthma for 1 year ending August 2015. In a total asthma population of 35,864, multivariate analyses in adults showed that the risk of admission increased with greater prescription of SABA inhalers above a baseline of 1-3 (4-12 SABA: odds ratio (OR) 1.71; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20-2.46, ⩾13 SABA: OR 3.22; 95% CI 2.04-5.07) with increasing British Thoracic Society step (Step 3: OR 2.90; 95% CI 1.79-4.69, Step 4/5: OR 9.42; 95% CI 5.27-16.84), and among Black (OR 2.30; 95% CI 1.64-3.23) and south Asian adult populations (OR 1.83; 95% CI 1.36-2.47). Results in children were similar, but risk of hospitalisation was not related to ethnic group. There is a progressive risk of hospital admission associated with the prescription of more than three SABA inhalers a year. Adults (but not children) from Black and South Asian groups are at an increased risk of admission. Further work is needed to target care for these at-risk groups.

Type: Article
Title: Asthma prescribing, ethnicity and risk of hospital admission: an analysis of 35,864 linked primary and secondary care records in East London
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/npjpcrm.2016.49
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npjpcrm.2016.49
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2016. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Infection, Immunity and Inflammation Dept
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1508434
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