ArticleBMJ open2016
Asthma medication prescribing before, during and after pregnancy: a study in seven European regions.
Article in BMJ open, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Maternal drug use and the risk of anorectal malformations: systematic review and meta-analysis.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2018Pooled it
- Women's experiences of personalised support for asthma care during pregnancy: A systematic review of the literature.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2017Pooled it
- Maternal asthma activity and offspring asthma: a linked-data population study in Australia and Sweden.BMJ open respiratory research · 2026Article
- The EUROmediCAT Network and Databases: A Resource for Pharmacovigilance in Pregnancy.Pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety · 2026Article
- Antiasthmatic prescriptions in children with and without congenital anomalies: a population-based study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Medicines prescribed for asthma, discontinuation and perinatal outcomes, including breastfeeding: A population cohort analysis.PloS one · 2020Article
- The Baby Hearts Study - a case-control methodology with data linkage to evaluate risk and protective factors for congenital heart disease.International journal of population data science · 2019Article
- The Role of European Healthcare Databases for Post-Marketing Drug Effectiveness, Safety and Value Evaluation: Where Does Italy Stand?Drug safety · 2019Review
- Asthma Outcomes and Management During Pregnancy.Chest · 2018Review
- Effect of Pregnancy on Quantitative Medication Use and Relation to Exacerbations in Asthma.BioMed research international · 2017Article
- Risk of congenital anomalies after exposure to asthma medication in the first trimester of pregnancy - a cohort linkage study.BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo explore utilisation patterns of asthma medication before, during and after pregnancy as recorded in seven European population-based databases.
designA descriptive drug utilisation study.
setting7 electronic healthcare databases in Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Italy (Emilia Romagna and Tuscany), Wales, and the Clinical Practice Research Datalink representing the rest of the UK.
participantsAll women with a pregnancy ending in a delivery that started and ended between 2004 and 2010, who had been present in the database for the year before, throughout and the year following pregnancy.
main outcome measuresThe percentage of deliveries where the woman received an asthma medicine prescription, based on prescriptions issued (UK) or dispensed (non-UK), during the year before, throughout or during the year following pregnancy. Asthma medicine prescribing patterns were described for 3-month time periods and the choice of asthma medicine and changes in prescribing over the study period were evaluated in each database.
resultsIn total, 1,165,435 deliveries were identified. The prevalence of asthma medication prescribing during pregnancy was highest in the UK and Wales databases (9.4% (CI95 9.3% to 9.6%) and 9.4% (CI95 9.1% to 9.6%), respectively) and lowest in the Norwegian database (3.7% (CI95 3.7% to 3.8%)). In the year before pregnancy, the prevalence of asthma medication prescribing remained constant in all regions. Prescribing levels peaked during the second trimester of pregnancy and were at their lowest during the 3-month period following delivery. A decline was observed, in all regions except the UK, in the prescribing of long-acting β-2-agonists during pregnancy. During the 7-year study period, there were only small changes in prescribing patterns.
conclusionsDifferences were found in the prevalence of prescribing of asthma medications during and surrounding pregnancy in Europe. Inhaled β-2 agonists and inhaled corticosteroids were, however, the most popular therapeutic regimens in all databases.
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