While inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) are recommended for children with asthma, our experience suggests that Hispanic patients, particularly those of Mexican-origin, may be less responsive to ICS than non-Hispanic whites. To investigate this question, we used data from three Childhood Asthma Research and Education Network (CARE) multi-center trials that used ICS as a primary intervention, enrolled pre-school children with asthma-like symptoms, particularly severe wheeze, and whose Hispanic population was predominately of Mexican-origin. We harmonized data from three clinical trials by using the original data to construct comparable variables across the 3 studies. Data were available from 332 non-Hispanic white and 136 Hispanic white children. Our primary outcome variable, obtained from study diaries, was the fraction of asthma episode days.  The results of this analysis will help inform the treatment of pre-school children with asthma-like symptoms.

This project was sponsored by the University of Arizona Health Sciences Health Data and Analytics Program.