Evaluating the effect of antidepressants on the relationship between depression and asthma.

Background: It is unclear if depression is associated with impaired lung function in subjects with asthma, while few studies evaluated the effect of antidepressants on the relationship between depression and asthma. We designed this study to investigate if subjects with concomitant asthma and depression not taking antidepressants have worse asthma outcomes compared to asthmatic subjects without depression, and to evaluate whether antidepressants modify this association.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study.

Hospital admission rate in children and adolescents with mild persistent asthma.

Introduction: The health and financial burden of mild-persistent asthma has been poorly investigated.

Objective: Our aim was to compare the rate of hospital admissions that have occurred during the preceding year between children and adolescents with current mild-persistent (MP) and moderate-severe (MS) asthma.

Methods: We screened children and adolescents with asthma at eight outpatient clinics.

Provision of inhaled corticosteroids is associated with decrease in hospital admissions in Brazil: A longitudinal nationwide study.

Objective: To describe trends of hospital admissions due to asthma from 2008 to 2015 and to evaluate their relationship with trends of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) provision by the government in Brazil.

Methods: We used Brazilian Government data to calculate hospital admission rates due to asthma, number of physicians, number of hospital beds, number of subjects that received ICS per 100,000 inhabitants in Brazil and in each of its municipalities for each year of the study. We performed Poisson Multilevel Regression Analyses to evaluate the relationship between the trends of hospital admission rates due to asthma with the trends of the number of subjects that had been receiving ICS during the study period.

Is a low level of education a limiting factor for asthma control in a population with access to pulmonologists and to treatment?

Objective: To determine whether a low level of education is a risk factor for uncontrolled asthma in a population of patients who have access to pulmonologists and to treatment.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study involving outpatients > 10 years of age diagnosed with asthma who were followed by a pulmonologist for at least 3 months in the city of Jundiai, located in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The patients completed a questionnaire specifically designed for this study, the 6-item Asthma Control Questionnaire (to assess the control of asthma symptoms), and a questionnaire designed to assess treatment adherence.