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 .