JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Pragmatic Clinical Trial
Anticholinergic vs Long-Acting β-Agonist in Combination With Inhaled Corticosteroids in Black Adults With Asthma: The BELT Randomized Clinical Trial.
The efficacy and safety of long-acting β-agonists (LABAs) have been questioned. Black populations may be disproportionately affected by LABA risks. ⋯ Among black adults with asthma treated with ICS, adding a LABA did not improve time to asthma exacerbation compared with adding tiotropium. These findings were not affected by polymorphisms at the Arg16Gly locus of ADRB2. These findings do not support the superiority of LABA + ICS compared with tiotropium + ICS for black patients with asthma.
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A systematic and comprehensive evaluation of long-term trends in mortality is important for health planning and priority setting and for identifying modifiable factors that may contribute to the trends. ⋯ According to death certificate data between 1969 and 2013, an overall decreasing trend in age-standardized death rate was observed for all causes combined, heart disease, cancer, stroke, unintentional injuries, and diabetes, although the rate of decrease appears to have slowed for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The death rate for COPD increased during this period.