Longitudinal systemic corticosteroid utilization in the UK, 1990-2018

Study type

• Study type:
  Non-interventional study
• Scope of the study:
  Drug utilisation

Non-interventional study

• Non-interventional study design:
  Cohort

Study drug and medical condition

• Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) code:
  (H02B) CORTICOSTEROIDS FOR SYSTEMIC USE, COMBINATIONS

  CORTICOSTEROIDS FOR SYSTEMIC USE, COMBINATIONS

Population studied

• Age groups:
  Children (2 to < 12 years)

  Adolescents (12 to < 18 years)

  Adults (18 to < 46 years)

  Adults (46 to < 65 years)

  Adults (65 to < 75 years)

  Adults (75 to < 85 years)

  Adults (85 years and over)
• Estimated number of subjects:
  6000000

Study design details

• Main study objective:
  To describe systemic corticosteroid use over time in up to 28 conditions, including asthma and COPD. To describe changes around the introduction of SCS-sparing therapies (e.g. biologics) and/or relevant treatment guideline changes.
• Data analysis plan:
  The study is a historical longitudinal descriptive cohort study, describing the systemic corticosteroid use in patients with a condition (28 initially selected) for which SCS are used between 1990 and 2018. For each of the selected conditions, for each calendar year the number of patients with active condition will be collected, and for these the number of prescriptions for systemic corticosteroids and the total dose taken will be collected. With these data changes in SCS utilisation after the introduction of new SCS-sparing therapies and/or relevant guideline changes will be described.