Factors associated with severity and exacerbation of asthma: a baseline analysis of the cohort for reality and evolution of adult asthma in Korea (COREA).
BACKGROUND
Asthma presents with heterogeneous features, and patients show various phenotypes of differing severities. Therefore, it is necessary to define reliable predictable clinical factors that influence severity. To date, few large-scale studies have gathered clinical data on adult asthma patients in Asia.


OBJECTIVE
To establish an adult asthma cohort in Korea and to define significant factors associated with asthma severity and exacerbation.


METHODS
Researchers from 11 university hospitals have established an asthma cohort termed the COhort for Reality and Evolution of adult Asthma in Korea (COREA). We classified the severity of asthma into 3 groups: mild, moderate, and severe. In this article, the first analysis of our cohort, we evaluate various clinical factors associated with the severity and exacerbation of asthma using data from 1,260 asthma patients.


RESULTS
Physician-evaluated severity of asthma was associated with a history of asthma exacerbation (P < .001), a history of smoking (P < .001), symptom duration (P = .007), and treatment duration (P < .001). It was also significantly correlated with predicted forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) values and FEV1/FVC ratio (all P < .001). Previous exacerbation was associated with smoking (P = .02), predicted FVC and FEV1 values (both P < .001), FEV1/FVC ratio (P = .02), airway hyperresponsiveness (P = .002), and duration of disease (P < .001).


CONCLUSIONS
Previous exacerbation, duration of disease, and decrease in lung function were important clinical indices associated with asthma severity in the COREA study patients. Our long-term follow-up study is expected to soon yield more accurate and detailed outcomes.
Kim
Tae-Bum
TB
Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Research Center for Chronic Obstructive Airway Disease, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Park
Chan Sun
CS
Bae
Yun-Jeong
YJ
Cho
You Sook
YS
Moon
Hee-Bom
HB
D001249:Asthma / Q000276:immunology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005541:Forced Expiratory Volume; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012907:Smoking; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014797:Vital Capacity