Oral corticosteroid (OCS)-associated sick leave in asthma patients on high-dosage inhaled corticosteroids in combination with a long-acting β-agonist (LABA) and OCS therapy in the sample (2015)
Total | Patients with at least one sick leave | Total days of sick leave in the subgroup | Sick leave days per patient | Mean number of days per sick leave# | |
No OCS | 16 869 | 537 (3.2%) | 18 245 | 1.1 | 34.0±10.9 |
All OCS patients | 8524 | 270 (3.2%) | 9641 | 1.1 | 35.7±11.5 |
Infrequent short-term | 3061 | 122 (4.0%) | 4458 | 1.5 | 36.5±13.4 |
Frequent short-term | 934 | 34 (3.6%) | 998 | 1.1 | 29.4±11.9 |
Long-term >20 to ≤90 days | 1871 | 54 (2.9%) | 1476 | 0.8 | 27.3±7.8 |
Long-term >90 to ≤180 days | 1184 | 32 (2.7%) | 1505 | 1.3 | 47.0±13.9 |
Long-term >180 days | 1474 | 28 (1.9%) | 1204 | 0.8 | 43.0±8.3 |
All HD-ICS/LABA patients | 25 393 | 870 (3.4%) | 27 886 | 1.1 | 34.6±11.1 |
HD: high-dosage; ICS: inhaled corticosteroids. #: in patients with at least one sick leave in 2015; sick leave was included if the patient was coded with an OCS adverse event-related International Classification of Diseases (10th Revision, German Modification) code as the diagnosis.