Pediatric Emergency Medicine in Colorado

A University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus research team including faculty from the Sections of Pediatric Emergency Medicine (Drs. Nidhya Navanandan, Melisa Tanverdi, and Lilliam Abroggio) and Pediatric Hospital Medicine (Dr. Mark Brittan) and from the Adult & Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research & Delivery Science (Angela Moss) published an analysis of Colorado's All Payer Claims Database that found no difference in outcomes by type of corticosteroid prescribed for asthma. 

This secondary data analysis studied children ages 3-9 years with a primary care clinic visit for asthma and an associated oral corticosteroid (OCS) prescription fill during the study period 2/2013-3/2019. The primary outcome was subsequent ED visit or hospital admission for asthma within 2-14 days after the index clinic visit. Demographics and asthma health services characteristics were assessed. Multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the association between type of OCS prescription filled within 1 day of the index clinic visit and the primary outcome.

There were 3236 index clinic visits for asthma for 1918 children during the study period. Sixty-two percent were male and 66% were 3-4 years old. Prednisone/prednisolone accounted for 84% of OCS prescriptions fills within 1 day of the index clinic visit. 1% required ED visits and 1% required hospital admission within 2-14 days. In multivariate analysis, there was no statistical association between type of OCS prescribed and the primary outcome: subsequent ED or inpatient visits.