Table 1 Demographics and characteristics of patients at baseline

Age-year

8.1 (6.5–9.7)

9.5 (6.8–12.2)

10.4 (7.3–13.5)

0.532

Gender (male sex)-no. (%)

195 (56.9)

232 (65.9)

209 (62.0)

0.683

Age of asthma onset-no.

14.6 (10.2–19.0)

16.2 (11.8–20.6)

0.884

Times of oral glucocorticoid in the previous year-no.

2.5 (1.7–3.3)

2.8 (1.9–3.7)

0.762

Emergency department visits in the previous year-no.

3.6 (2.1–5.1)

1.4 (1.0−1.8)

3.1 (2.2−4.0)

0.001

Hospitalizations in the previous year-no.

0.5 (0.3–0.7)

0.2 (0.0−0.4)

0.7 (0.4−1.0)

0.001

Percentage of asthma-control days-%

86.4 (78.3–94.5)

83.2 (72.8–93.6)

0.831

Albuterol inhalations per week-no.

1.6 (0.5–2.7)

1.9 (1.0−2.8)

0.673

Use of ICS in the previous year- no. (%)

230 (67.1)

243 (72.1)

0.516

Use of LTRA in the previous year-no. (%)

93 (27.1)

66 (19.6)

0.005

Blood eosinophil count-cells/mm³

266.3 (176.5−356.1)

129.4 (49.8–209.0)

237.6 (127.2–348.0)

0.001

IgE-kU/L

72.0 (36.9−107.1)

41.2 (22.8–59.6)

66.8 (41.6–92.0)

0.001

NLR

2.3 (1.0−3.6)

2.5 (1.2–3.8)

3.5 (2.0–5.0)

0.001

Oxygen saturation-%

96.7 (93.5–99.9)

97.2 (95.1–99.3)

95.4 (92.8–98.0)

0.892

PaO₂-mmHg

75.3 (62.9–87.7)

73.6 (64.5–82.7)

71.8 (58.4–85.2)

0.573

Clinical setting

Clinics

57 (16.6)

56 (15.9)

45 (13.3)

0.125

Emergency department

105 (30.6)

101 (28.7)

96 (28.5)

General wards

181 (52.8)

195 (55.4)

196 (58.2)