Patients who have asthma along with eosinophilic esophagitis are more likely to visit the hospital at a younger age compared to patients who only have eosinophilic esophagitis, according to a new research presented at the recently concluded Chest 2023, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, which was held in Honolulu, Hawaii and simultaneously published in the journal Chest.¹ The study also showed that asthma was more prevalent in women.

This retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to characterize asthma in patients with/without eosinophilic esophagitis. A total of 3,678,812 patients with asthma and 5823 patients with eosinophilic esophagitis from 185 hospitals across the United States between 2016 and 2021 were included in the study. Patients younger than 18 years were excluded from the study group.

Analysis of data revealed that the prevalence of asthma alone was comparable to the prevalence of asthma with eosinophilic esophagitis in due course of time. When the subgroup of patients with asthma alone was considered, nearly three-quarters of patients with asthma were female (72.55%), while the prevalence in men was 27.45% in a ratio of 3:1. Whereas among patients with both asthma and eosinophilic esophagitis, this ratio was 1:1 (51.78% to 48.22%).

Male patients with both asthma and eosinophilic esophagitis were 5.517 years younger than their counterparts without asthma. A similar trend was seen among the female participants. Women with both asthma and eosinophilic esophagitis were 5.480 years younger than their counterparts without asthma.

Asthmatic patients comprised just 4% of all emergency and hospital visits. “Only 18.16% of asthmatic patients who presented to the emergency room ended up being admitted to the hospital”, found the authors.

This study shows that patients who have both asthma and eosinophilic esophagitis, present for admission at a younger age compared to patients who just had one of the two diseases suggesting that their concomitant presence may have an “additive effect” on the age of hospital presentation. The authors hypothesise that “multiple atopic processes working together to cause a stronger inflammatory response” may lead to patients seeking care at an earlier age. Clinicians treating patients with asthma or any other atopic disease, should bear in mind that the patient may have another such condition. Presence of two or more atopic conditions increase the likelihood of disease exacerbations necessitating hospital visits. Patients should also be educated about this, so that they can better monitor their symptoms and seek timely medical care, when needed.

Reference

1. Linda H Pham, et al. A retrospective study on the trends of patients hospitalized for asthma exacerbations with and without concomitant eosinophilic esophagitis in the United States. Chest. 2023:164(4 Suppl):A27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2023.07.080.