Researchers identified three stable comorbidity clusters that influence disease severity and treatment needs for patients with severe asthma.<\/p>\n
By Ada Enesco<\/a><\/p>\n Distinct patterns of multimorbidity in patients with severe asthma have been identified across Europe, offering new insights into how comorbidities cluster and influence disease severity and treatment needs.<\/p>\n Severe asthma is a complex condition characterised by persistent symptoms, frequent exacerbations, and reduced lung function despite high-intensity therapy, often complicated by multiple coexisting conditions.<\/p>\n A large pan-European analysis of 2,690 patients from 11 countries examined how common comorbidities co-occur in severe asthma. Researchers found that multimorbidity is not random but instead forms recognizable and reproducible patterns across different European regions, suggesting underlying clinical phenotypes.<\/p>\n Three Consistent Comorbidity Clusters Identified<\/p>\n Across all regions studied, three stable comorbidity clusters were observed.<\/p>\n The first linked osteoporosis with steroid-induced weight gain, highlighting the long-term effects of corticosteroid exposure.<\/p>\n The second combined eczema and allergic rhinitis, reflecting an allergic or atopic profile.<\/p>\n The third grouped chronic sinusitis with nasal polyps, indicating a strong upper airway disease association.<\/p>\n Other conditions, including obesity, bronchiectasis, gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, and psychological factors, showed more variable clustering patterns, reinforcing the heterogeneity of severe asthma presentations.<\/p>\n Distinct Multimorbidity Phenotypes Linked to Outcomes<\/p>\n Patients were grouped into multimorbidity phenotypes based on these clustering patterns. The most common phenotype included sinonasal disease without strong cluster alignment, while another large group showed no clear pattern.<\/p>\n Importantly, a steroid-associated multimorbidity phenotype was linked to the worst clinical outcomes, including higher maintenance oral corticosteroid use, poorer lung function, worse asthma control, and more frequent exacerbations.<\/p>\n A separate \u201cmaximal multimorbidity\u201d group showed high comorbidity burden alongside increased need for biologic therapies.<\/p>\n For clinicians managing severe asthma, these findings highlight the importance of recognising multimorbidity patterns rather than treating comorbidities in isolation. Patients with steroid-linked multimorbidity may require earlier consideration of steroid-sparing strategies and closer monitoring for systemic complications.<\/p>\n The study suggests that severe asthma should be approached as a whole-patient disease, where comorbidity clustering can help guide personalised treatment strategies and improve long-term outcomes.<\/p>\n Reference<\/p>\n Freeman A et al. Multimorbidity phenotypes and associated characteristics in severe asthma: an observational study of European severe asthma registries. Lancet Reg Health Eur. 2026;63:101600.<\/p>\n This article was\u00a0originally\u00a0published\u00a0by EMJ<\/a>\u00a0and was made available under the terms of the\u00a0Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 License<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers identified three stable comorbidity clusters that influence disease severity and treatment needs for patients with severe asthma.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[165114,30238,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-401843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-asthma-adult-care","tag-asthma-pediatric","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}