Table 1

Demographic characteristics of the active asthma, less active and non-asthma populations

Characteristics		Study populations			p Value for equivalence^*
Characteristics		Active asthma, n (%)	Less active asthma, n (%)	Non-asthma, n (%)	p Value for equivalence^*
N		436403	1226174	11286149
Age (mean±SD)		31.34 (24.14)	32.54 (22.34)	37.80 (21.87)	1.00
Female sex		230597 (52.84%)	648217 (52.87%)	5715940 (50.65%)	<0.001
Income quintile^†	1 (lowest)	95347 (21.85%)	248253 (20.25%)	2349393 (20.82%)	<0.001
	2	89627 (20.54%)	245117 (19.99%)	2266901 (20.09%)
	3	87192 (19.98%)	243708 (19.88%)	2210657 (19.59%)
	4	84300 (19.32%)	245239 (20%)	2215594 (19.63%)
	5 (highest)	78907 (18.08%)	240550 (19.62%)	2212440 (19.60%)
Rural		42925 (9.84%)	139702 (11.39%)	1338319 (11.86%)	<0.001

↵* Equivalence tests performed. Significant p values indicate that distributions are ‘practically equivalent’ to within ±2.5 percentage points for proportions (5% total) and 1 year for age.
↵† Data missing in 0.24% of active asthma, 0.27% of less active and 0.28% of non-asthma populations.