Asthma is classified based on the degree of symptom severity, which can be divided into four categories: mild intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, and severe persistent.
Four clusters were identified (severe persistent, moderate persistent, mild persistent, and fluctuating).
Most patients had moderate or severe COPD, and mild persistent or moderate persistent asthma.
While 31.6% of the mild persistent, 28.6% of the moderate persistent asthma patients were prescribed with oral corticosteroid that was only recommended for severe persistent asthma.
Mild intermittent allergic rhinitis was found in 2.0% of patients, moderate to severe intermittent allergic rhinitis in 18.2% of patients, mild persistent allergic rhinitis in 5.6% of patients and moderate to severe persistent allergic rhinitis in 74.3% of patients.
In our survey, only 60.0% of intermittent, 52.3% of the mild persistent, 42.9% of the moderate persistent and 70% of the severe persistent asthma patients were prescribed with ICS.
Asthma severity was first classified as intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent, or severe persistent using the GINA guidelines[13] that were available at the time of ECRHS-I.
At baseline, asthma severity according to GINA was distributed as intermittent: 40.7%, 31.7% as mild persistent, 14% as moderate persistent, and 13.5% as severe persistent.
According to the 1992 GINA classification, 40.7% of asthmatics at baseline were classified intermittent, 31.7% as mild persistent, 14% as moderate persistent, and 13.5% as severe persistent.
Using the Ronchetti score derived classification, the distribution of asthma severity was 58% mild, (intermittent and mild persistent), 25.8% moderate, and 15.4% severe.
