Cessation of asthma medication in early pregnancy

Objective

The objective of the study was to determine whether women alter their use of asthma medications during pregnancy.

Study design

Weekly asthma medication use was determined from prescription claims data in a cohort of 112,171 pregnant women aged 15 to 44 years who were continuously enrolled in the Tennessee Medicaid program prior to their singleton pregnancy and who delivered a singleton birth during 1995 to 2001. Change in asthma medication use was evaluated using generalized estimating equation analyses.

Results

Women with asthma significantly (P ≤ 0.0005) decreased their asthma medication use from 5 to 13 weeks of pregnancy. During the first trimester, there was a 23% decline in inhaled corticosteroid prescriptions, a 13% decline in short-acting beta-agonist prescriptions, and a 54% decline in rescue corticosteroid prescriptions.

Conclusions

Utilization of all categories of asthma medications decreased in early pregnancy, with the largest declines occurring for inhaled and rescue corticosteroids.

Key words: Asthma, Pregnancy, Medicaid database, Drug utilization, Guidelines