Health Care Utilization Determined From Administrative Claims Analysis for Patients Who Received Inhaled Corticosteroids With Either Montelukast or Salmeterol

Drs. Crownover and Curtiss published separate editorials that made reference to our article on health care utilization among patients with asthma who were treated with inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) in combination with either montelukast (MON) or salmeterol (SAL). The subject of Crownover's editorial is application of the PP-ICONS tool to skim research articles to quickly evaluate new publications. The Curtiss editorial more broadly discusses asthma disease management. Both the Crownover and Curtiss editorials reference the NAEPP guidelines for diagnosis and management of asthma. Curtiss states that leukotriene modifiers (LMs) are recommended for only one category of patient, those in Step 3 with moderate persistent asthma.(2, p. 344) In fact, LMs are listed in the guidelines as alternative treatment for both mild persistent and moderate persistent asthma for infants and young children (aged 5 years and younger) and for adults and children older than 5 years.