title: Socioeconomic status and medication prescription patterns in pediatric asthma in Canada.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate whether the socioeconomic status of children and adolescents with asthma is associated with optimal use of asthma medications in a health care system that provides free access to prescribed medications.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cohort of 29,018 children (5-12 y) and adolescents (13-17 y) with asthma was reconstructed from the administrative health database of the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec in Canada. Adherence to the Canadian Asthma Guidelines was compared between low-income patients (patients living in families receiving social assistance) and higher-income patients (patients living in middle-class families with working parents). Both groups of patients had free, universal access to medical care and prescribed medications. Patients were considered adherent if they had: (1) 10 doses or fewer of a short-acting beta2-agonist (SABA) per week or (2) greater than 10 doses of a SABA per week plus greater than 1,000 microg of beclomethasone chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) per day. A second definition of adherence was used in which the 10 doses of SABA were replaced by 3 doses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our cohort comprised 7,454 adolescents and 21,564 children. Within each definition, low-income adolescents had similar rates of adherence as higher-income adolescents (p = .08-.4). Low-income children, however, had lower rates of adherence than higher-income children when the first definition of adherence was used (76% vs. 80%; p < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed that socioeconomic status had a small influence on the likelihood of receiving treatment in adherence with the Canadian Asthma Guidelines among children, whereas no association was detected among adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Université de Montréal, Faculty of Pharmacy, Montreal, Canada. lucie.blais@umontreal.ca
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Blais
authors.forename: Marie-France
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Beauchesne
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lévesque
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001249:Asthma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000191:economics; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D011307:Drug Prescriptions / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012923:Social Class
chemical_list: D018927:Anti-Asthmatic Agents