Prescription of respiratory medication without an asthma diagnosis in children: a population based study

Table 3 Subgroup analysis of the congruence between prescription of asthma medication and doctor-diagnosed asthma.

	N	Asthma medication use, %	Doctor-diagnosed asthma, %	PPV*	Sensitivity
Total population	74,580	7.5	4.1	0.49	0.89
Male	38,267	8.3	4.6	0.50	0.89
Female	36,312	6.7	3.5	0.47	0.90
<6 yrs	21,720	10.8	5.7	0.46	0.88
≥6 yrs	52,860	6.2	3.5	0.51	0.90
SABA only		2.5	4.1	0.38	^
ICS only		1.6	4.1	0.42
SABA + ICS		3.0	4.1	0.64
1 prescription		4.0	4.1	0.38	^
2 prescriptions		1.6	4.1	0.54
≥3 prescriptions		2.0	4.1	0.66

* All Pearson's Chi-Square p-values < .0001
^ The sensitivities for subgroups of asthma medication users are not shown, since they are highly dependent on the percentual contribution of the subgroups to the total group of asthma medication users and are therefore not very informative and, by definition, low.

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