3.2 Demographic and clinical characteristics
Characteristics of patients with incident CRSwNP at the time of study
inclusion (1 January 2012-31 December 2018) are presented in Table 1.
CRSwNP patients were more frequently male (59.9%) and their median age
at the time of diagnosis was 53 years (interquartile range 39 - 65). Out
of all incident patients (n=18 563), 27.0 % had been diagnosed with
asthma, with 5.8% of the incident patients having severe asthma. The
number of patients with severe uncontrolled asthma was 283 patients
(1.5% of the incident patients). A total of 62.7% of the patients had
used any systemic corticosteroids (SCS) during the study period
(2012-2019). The use of SCS was more common in patients with comorbid
asthma, especially in those with more severe asthma (p <
0.001). At baseline, the most common comorbidities were upper airway
diseases, dental problems, cardiovascular diseases, back pain, and
obesity (Supplemental Material Table S1). Nasal polyps, both acute and
chronic sinusitis and acute respiratory infections were reported during
the follow-up period, Supplemental Material Table S2. Also, oral health
problems, including periodontitis and dental caries persisted in
patients during the follow-up, Supplemental Material Table S2.