Maintenance of an Asthma Intervention Post-Trial: Use of a Patient-Activated Reliever-Triggered Inhaled Corticosteroid (PARTICS) Strategy in Black and Latinx Patients

*Participants surveyed had received patient-activated, reliever-triggered inhaled corticosteroid (beclomethasone dipropionate, 80 μg, metered dose inhaler) added to usual care in the PREPARE trial. All baseline characteristics were reported by the participant except for fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) and absolute eosinophil count. FeNO data were missing for 76 participants and absolute eosinophil count data were missing for 69 participants. Data are reported in number (n) and percentage (%) or mean and standard deviation (SD) as appropriate. Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding. Surveys were multiple choice, could be left unanswered, and responses were not identifiable by a participant’s clinicians.

† The body mass index is the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters.

‡ Coexisting conditions included heart disease, cancer (except skin cancer), stroke, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, human immunodeficiency virus infection or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, hypertension, depression, and sleep disorder.

§ The Asthma Control Test is a participant-administered tool for assessing the level of asthma control. Total scores range from 5 to 25, with a score of 20 to 25 indicating well-controlled asthma, a score of 16 to 19 indicating asthma that was not well controlled, and a score of 5 to 15 indicating very poorly controlled asthma (1). The minimal clinically important difference is 3 points (2).

¶ The Asthma Symptom Utility Index is a participant-administered tool for assessing preference-based quality of life. Scores range from 0 (worst possible symptoms) to 1 (no symptoms) (3). The minimal clinically important difference is 0.09 (4).

** Asthma APGAR (Activities, Persistent, triGGers, Asthma medications, Response to therapy) is an assessment tool designed for use in the primary care setting to assess medication adherence, inhaler technique, patient’s subjective response to therapy, and asthma triggers (5).

†† The BMQ (Beliefs about Medication Questionnaire) is a questionnaire designed to assess patient’s beliefs about the use and effectiveness of their medications. Participants were asked these questions specifically about their asthma medications. The BMQ Necessity subscale evaluates participant’s beliefs about the necessity of their medications, while the BMQ Concerns subscale evaluates participant’s concerns about dependence and long-term toxicity of their medications (6).

‡‡ The PHQ-2, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, is a validated screening questionnaire for depressive disorders with a 2 week recall. Total score ranges from 0–6, with scores of ≥3 suggesting high risk of depression (7).

§§ The BHLS (Brief Health Literacy Scale) measures participant-reported health literacy and consists of three items. Scoring low or marginal health literacy on any one item classifies a participant as having low or marginal health literacy (8).

¶¶ Everyday Discrimination Scale assesses participant-reported discrimination experienced in everyday life (9).

*** The Perceived Stress Scale assesses stress as reported by participants within the past month (10).

††† ICS refers to inhaled corticosteroid. Biologic agents included injectable monoclonal antibody therapies targeting IgE, interleukin-5, the interleukin-5 receptor, or the interleukin-4 receptor.

‡‡‡ MARS-5, the Medication Adherence Report Scale-5, measures participant-reported medication adherence. Mean scores are calculated from five items and range from 1 to 5, with higher scores indicating better adherence (11).

§§§ Current smokers were defined as participants who were currently smoking or had smoked within the previous year. Former smokers were participants who had not smoked in the previous year but had smoked at least 10 pack-years. Nonsmokers were those who had not smoked within the previous year and had smoked less than 10 pack-years.

¶¶¶ A smoking environment was defined as others regularly smoking in the participant’s home, work, or car.