Effect of Pregnancy on Quantitative Medication Use and Relation to Exacerbations in Asthma

Table 3

Comparison of inhaled asthma medications before, during, and after pregnancy, according to the study groups.

Medication	Group	Before pregnancy	During pregnancy	After pregnancy
		Doses/month
		Mean ± sd	Mean ± sd	Mean ± sd
Low-dose ICS	Total				<0.0001
	Group 1				<0.0001
	Group 2				<0.0001
	Group 3				<0.0001
	Group 4				<0.0001
Medium- to high-dose ICS	Total				<0.0001
	Group 1				<0.0001
	Group 2				<0.0001
	Group 3				<0.0001
	Group 4				<0.0001
Low-dose ICS/LABA	Total				<0.0001
	Group 1				0.2656
	Group 2				<0.0001
	Group 3				<0.0001
	Group 4				<0.0001
Medium- to high-dose ICS/LABA	Total				0.0005
	Group 1				0.1463
	Group 2				<0.0001
	Group 3				<0.0001
	Group 4				0.0273
SABAs	Total				<0.0001
	Group 1				0.9656
	Group 2				<0.0001
	Group 3				0.6736
	Group 4				<0.0001
LAMA	Total				<0.0001
	Group 1				0.0006
	Group 2				0.4227
	Group 3				0.0014
	Group 4				0.4227

value according to the multivariate analysis of variance; ICS, inhaled corticosteroid; LABA, long-acting -agonists; SABAs, short-acting -agonists; LAMA, long-acting muscarinic antagonists; sd, standard deviation.