RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Treatment strategy that reduces dependence on long-term medication for chronic asthma is preferable. The purpose of the study is to investigate the efficacy of an early intensive intervention for inducing inactive asthma in adults and identify factors that affect the efficacy. METHODS: A prospective study was conducted on subjects who had asthma for two years or less. An intensive intervention consisting of systemic corticosteroid treatment for two weeks followed by inhaled corticosteroid for further 16 weeks with concomitant administration of bronchodilator(s) was administrated on 109 subjects. As a control group, 33 subjects were treated according to the current asthma treatment guidelines for 18 weeks. The primary outcome of the intervention was assessed with symptomatology and use of medication during 12 months after the cessation of treatment period. RESULTS: At one year after the intervention, significantly more patients in the intensive intervention group (41%) than in the control group (24%) had no respiratory symptoms and were medication-free or had experienced minor upper respiratory symptoms (inactive asthma) (P = 0.01). The intensive intervention maintained a significant factor associated with one-year inactive asthma (adjusted odds ratio: 3.61, 95% confidence interval: 1.20-10.84; P = 0.02). Infection as onset cause, asthma duration and pre-treatment %FEV(1.0) were also identified independently associated with inactive asthma. As the limitation, the study was not randomized trial. CONCLUSIONS: Intensive therapy in the early stage is very likely to contribute to increasing one-year asthma inactivity, which may reduce patients' dependence on long-term management by medical treatment.