Patient population
Within the index period 181,496 patients received prescriptions within the AIT group. 5,959 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Of these 44.8% received grass and 55.2% tree pollen allergoids. 504 of these patients received the MCT®-associated allergoid, 3,329 patients allergoid 2 and 2,126 patients allergoid 3. The same number of matched control patients were included for each group. For each study product about half of the patients were classified at index as adults (3,256 patients >18-65 years), followed by a high number of children (1,958 patients 5-12 years) and adolescents (745 patients 13-18 years). Baseline characteristics are summarized in Table 1. AIT therapy was mainly prescribed by Specialists (ENT specialist, dermatologist, pulmonologist, 58.9%), followed by Paediatricians (26.5%) and Generalists (14.5%). Only slightly more than half of the children and adolescents received AIT therapy through Paediatricians (56.1%), 59.0% of those treated with the MCT®-associated allergoid, 52.9% with allergoid 2 and 59.6% with allergoid 3. The second most frequent prescribers of AIT therapy in this age group were Specialists. Before initiation of an AIT therapy 26.6% of the patients already had received asthma medication. The proportion of asthma was higher for patients initiated on the MCT®-associated allergoid (31.9%) than for patients initiated on allergoid 2 or 3 (25.5% and 27.1%, respectively). The percentage of juvenile asthma patients was higher (30.6%) than in adults (23.3%, age >18 years). This proportion was highest in children and adolescents treated with MCT®-associated allergoid, at 36.8%. The percentage of asthma patients was lower for allergoid 2 (29.2%) and allergoid 3 (30.8%).