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

Table 6

General linear mixed models to estimate asthma medication pattern variables over the study period to predict asthma exacerbation in Group 1.

Outcome variable	Explanatory variable	Estimate	Standard Error	DF	-value	P value	95% CI
							Lower	Upper
Systemic corticosteroid prescription	Intercept	−0.9301	0.2563	222	−3.63	0.0004	−1.4324	−0.4278
		−0.00036	0.000563	222	−0.64	0.5242	−0.0015	0.00074
		−0.00036	0.000698	222	−0.51	0.6072	−0.0017	0.00101
Hospitalization	Intercept	−1.9751	0.2567	222	−7.69	<0.0001	−2.4782	−1.472
		−0.00075	0.000542	222	−1.38	0.1683	−0.0018	0.00031
		0.0001	0.00071	222	0.14	0.8878	−0.0013	0.00149
ED visit	Intercept	−3.2084	0.4634	222	−6.92	<0.0001	−4.1167	−2.3001
		−0.00078	0.000929	222	−0.84	0.403	−0.0026	0.00104
		0.000964	0.001373	222	0.7	0.4832	−0.0017	0.00366
Overall exacerbation	Intercept	−0.5459	0.2238	222	−2.44	0.0155	−0.9845	−0.1073
		−0.00049	0.000488	222	−1	0.3197	−0.0014	0.00047
		−0.00016	0.000618	222	−0.26	0.7956	−0.0014	0.00105
Ventolin nebulizer treatment	Intercept	−1.9872	0.5328	222	−3.73	0.0002	−3.0315	−0.9429
		−0.00073	0.001117	222	−0.66	0.5126	−0.0029	0.00146
		−0.00032	0.0014	222	−0.23	0.8167	−0.0031	0.00242

, total use of asthma medications before pregnancy; , total use of asthma medications during pregnancy; ED, emergency department; DF, degree of freedom; CI, confidence interval.