Outpatient Use of ICS Therapy
Infants and children who were on ICS therapy as outpatients (n=192) did not differ by clinical characteristics, such as BPD severity or gestational age, compared to their counterparts who were not on outpatient ICS therapy (n=469) (Table 3 ). However, we observed that children on an ICS, at completion of their first pulmonary visit were more likely to have a family history of asthma (p =0.021) and to be on public insurance (p =0.031) compared to those who were not.
To determine if there were subgroup differences related to being started on ICS therapy at NICU discharge, we compared those started on ICS therapy as outpatients (n =138) to those never on outpatient ICS therapy (n=462, Supplemental Table 1 ). Similar to before, those initiated on ICS therapy as outpatients were more likely to have a family history of asthma (64.9% versus 47.5%;p <0.001) and to be on public insurance (68.6% versus 58.1%; p =0.028) than those who were not. Although the groups did not differ by BPD severity (p =0.27), those initiated on ICS therapy as outpatients were less likely to require home supplemental oxygen (33.3% versus 52.5%; p <0.001) and have shorter NICU lengths of stay (119 ± 63 versus 137 ± 68 days; p =0.005). Complete comparisons of all three subgroups for analysis can be found inSupplemental Table 2 .