Trajectories of Controller Therapy Use Before and After Asthma-Related Hospitalization in Children and Adults: Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: Inappropriate use of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) for asthma impairs control and may cause exacerbation, including asthma-related hospitalization (ARH). In prospective studies, ICS use peaked around ARH, but information on routine care use is limited. Since ARH is a major outcome, controller therapy use in routine care before and after ARH should be documented. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to distinguish ICS use typologies (trajectories) before and after ARH, and assess their relationships with sociodemographic, disease, and health care characteristics. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was performed using a 1% random sample of the French claims database. All patients hospitalized for asthma between January 01, 2013, and December 31, 2015, were classified as either children (aged 1-10 years) or teens/adults (aged ≥11 years). Health care resource use was assessed between 24 and 12 months before ARH. ICS use was computed with the Continuous Measures of Medication Acquisition-7 (CMA7) for the 4 quarters before and after ARH. Initially, the overall impact of hospitalization on the CMA7 value was studied using a segmented regression analysis in both children and teens/adults. Then, group-based trajectory modeling differentiated the groups with similar ICS use. We tested different models having 2 to 5 distinct trajectory groups before selecting the most appropriate trajectory form. We finally selected the model with the lowest Bayesian Information Criterion, the highest proportion of patients in each group, and the maximum estimated probability of assignment to a specific group. RESULTS: Overall, 863 patients were included in the final study cohort, of which 447 (51.8%) were children and 416 (48.2%) were teens/adults. In children, the average CMA7 value was 12.6% at the start of the observation period, and there was no significant quarter-to-quarter change in the value (P=.14) before hospitalization. Immediately after hospitalization, the average CMA7 value rose by 34.9% (P=.001), before a significant decrease (P=.01) of 7.0% per quarter. In teens/adults, the average CMA7 value was 31.0% at the start, and there was no significant quarter-to-quarter change in the value (P=.08) before hospitalization. Immediately after hospitalization, the average CMA7 value rose by 26.9% (P=.002), before a significant decrease (P=.01) of 7.0% per quarter. We identified 3 and 5 trajectories before ARH in children and adults, respectively, and 5 after ARH for both groups. Trajectories were related to sociodemographic characteristics (particularly, markers of social deprivation) and to potentially inappropriate health care, such as medical management and choice of therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Although ARH had an overall positive impact on ICS use trajectories, the effect was often transient, and patient behaviors were heterogeneous. Along with overall trends, distinct trajectories were identified, which were related to specific patients and health care characteristics. Our data reinforce the evidence that inappropriate use of ICS paves the way for ARH.