The prevalence of poor asthma control during pregnancy is high among women in the United States, especially among the Medicaid population, and dispensing of long-term controller medication is low, new data suggest.
In the MarketScan cohort, 3.3% of women had asthma and 19% had severe asthma. Similarly, in the MAX cohort, 5.8% had asthma and 18.8% had severe asthma. The proportion of women with poorly controlled asthma, however, was greater in those with public insurance (MAX) than in those with private insurance (MarketScan; 28% vs. 16.5%).
In both cohorts, poor asthma control was associated with smoking, obesity, chronic conditions, such as diabetes, and non-asthma medications, including opioids. Women with poor asthma control also had more outpatient visits, ED visits and hospitalizations. In MAX, poor asthma control was also more likely in older women.
