The presence of comorbidity can be associated with poorer asthma outcomes. Previous prevalence studies focused on a limited selection of comorbid conditions in asthma only. We aimed to determine age- and sex-specific prevalence estimates for the full range of chronic comorbid conditions in adult asthma patients by performing a retrospective cohort study based on 32,787 medical records of patients aged ≥16 years with asthma from 179 general practices in the Netherlands. Age- and sex-specific prevalence estimates of 76 chronic comorbidities and 14 disease categories based on International Classification of Primary Care codes were determined. Chronic comorbidity was present in 65.3% of male asthma patients and 72.8% of female asthma patients, with female patients having a higher mean (SD) of 2.0 (2.1) comorbidities compared to male patients (1.7 (2.0)). This mean increased to 5.0 (2.7) conditions in the 75+ age group. Most prevalent comorbidities were hypertension (20.1%), osteoarthritis (11.5%), eczema (11.5%) and dyspepsia (10.7%). Compared to male asthma patients, female asthma patients showed higher odds for the presence of other chronic conditions in eight disease categories. Neurological (odds ratio [OR]; 95% confidence interval 2.01; 1.76-2.29), blood forming/lymphatics (OR 1.83; 1.38-2.42) and musculoskeletal diseases (OR 1.82; 1.69-1.95) showed the highest association with female sex. In conclusion, the presence of chronic comorbidity is the norm in adults with asthma and it is more prevalent in female than in male asthma patients. The odds of having a specific comorbid condition may differ between the sexes. Attention in guidelines on how to handle comorbidities may lead to a more targeted treatment for comorbidities and more patient-centred asthma management.

中文翻译：

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成年哮喘患者慢性合并症的年龄和性别特异性患病率：一项现实生活研究。

合并症的存在可能与较差的哮喘预后相关。以前的患病率研究仅针对哮喘中的合并症进行了有限的选择。我们的目的是根据荷兰179种常规做法对32岁以上哮喘患者的32,787例医疗记录进行回顾性队列研究，从而确定成年哮喘患者全部慢性合并症的年龄和性别特异性患病率估算值。根据国际初级保健分类代码，确定了76种慢性合并症和14种疾病类别的年龄和性别特定患病率估计值。慢性合并症在男性哮喘患者中占65.3％，在女性哮喘患者中占72.8％，女性患者的平均（SD）为2.0（2.1），高于男性患者（1.7（2。0））。在75岁以上的年龄段中，该平均值增加到5.0（2.7）个条件。最常见的合并症是高血压（20.1％），骨关节炎（11.5％），湿疹（11.5％）和消化不良（10.7％）。与男性哮喘患者相比，女性哮喘患者在八种疾病中存在其他慢性疾病的几率更高。神经系统疾病（优势比[OR]； 95％置信区间2.01； 1.76-2.29），血液形成/淋巴瘤（OR 1.83； 1.38-2.42）和肌肉骨骼疾病（OR 1.82； 1.69-1.95）显示出与女性相关性最高。总之，慢性合并症的存在是成年人哮喘的普遍现象，女性比男性哮喘患者更为普遍。患有特定合并症的几率在两性之间可能有所不同。