Abstract
Introduction: The aim of this study was to determine the distrubition of phenotypes in patients with asthma in Turkey.
Materials and methods: A total of 1400 adult asthmatic patients from 13 centers of different geographic locations were involved. A standard questionnaire was applied between February -December 2011.
Results: The percentage of females was 75%. Severity of the disease was found as mild persistant in 10%, mild intermittant in 40%, moderate in 38% and severe in 12%. 12% of the patients had irreversible airway obstruction. Smoking/quitted patients were 34% of the study group, 42% of the patients had obesity (BMI> 30), 11% had analgesic intolerance and 29% had psychological triggers. Smoking rate was found to be lower in females (p<0,01) whereas the rate of obesity, analgesic intolerance and psychological triggers was higher in females (p<0.01) than males. Allergic asthma phenotype consisted 46,2% of the study group. Total control rate was found as 22%; which was higher in males compared to females (29% vs 19%)(p<0,01). There was no difference between genders in term of partial control however uncontrolled asthma was more frequent in females than males (31% vs 22%)(p<0.01). Pulmonary function tests, total IgE values, skin prick test results and severity of disease were all comparable between males and females. The most frequent comorbidities were chronic rhinitis/rhinosinusitis (49%) and reflux(34%). It was found that the cases with lower asthma control levels had higher rates of analgesic intolerance and multipl comorbities (p<0.01)
Conclusion: To our knowledge this is the first study on asthma phenotypes in our country and we believe that it will have significant contribution in obtaining control in our asthma patients.
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