Men who were taking oral steroids for COPD or asthma were older, less physically active, reported this website poorer health, and had more strokes check details and coronary artery disease. These men also had the heaviest smoking history, although,

only 3% were currently smoking. Table 1 Baseline characteristics for men in the osteoporotic fractures in men study (MrOS) by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or asthma status   No COPD or asthma (N = 4827) COPD or asthma, no steroids (N = 434) COPD or asthma, oral steroids (N = 103) COPD or asthma, inhaled steroids (N = 177) p value Age (years) ± SD 73.5 ± 5.9 74.1 ± 5.9 74.3 ± 5.6 74.7 ± 5.5 0.002 Race (%)  White 89.0 91.0 87.4 87.0 0.11  African-American 4.1 5.3 7.8 4.5    Asian 3.5 0.9 1.9 4.0    Hispanic 2.2 1.4 1.9 4.0    Other

1.2 1.4 1.0 0.5   BMI (kg/m2) ± SD 27.4 ± 3.8 27.7 ± 4.3 27.2 ± 3.6 26.9 ± 4.1 0.17 Smoking (%)  Never 39.2 25.6 32.0 24.9 <0.0001  Past 57.5 69.6 65.1 71.8    Current 3.3 4.8 2.9 3.4   Number of packs per year (%)  0 39.5 25.8 32.0 24.9 <0.0001  >0–7 12.8 8.3 14.6 11.3    >7–29 25.3 23.0 21.4 24.3    >29 22.4 42.9 32.0 39.6   Alcohol drinks per week (%)  0 35.1 39.4 36.9 39.6 0.58  1–7 47.1 44.4 46.6 45.2    >7 17.8 16.2 16.5 15.3   Physical activitya ± SD 148.3 ± 67.9 137.6 ± 71.6 128.4 ± 77.4 VX-689 cell line 132.4 ± 63.4 <0.0001 Self-reported health status (%)  Excellent/good 87.8 72.8 70.9 70.1 <0.0001  Fair/poor/very poor 12.2 27.2 29.1 29.9   Medical conditions (%)  Coronary artery disease 13.7 16.6 21.4 16.6 0.04  Diabetes mellitus 10.5 13.8 13.6 10.2 0.14  HTN 43.5 46.5 45.6 46.9 0.51  Stroke 5.3 6.9 10.7 7.3 0.04 Inhaled corticosteroid (%) − − 15.5 100.0 NA Oral corticosteroid (%) − − 100.0 − NA Beta agonist and/or anticholinergic (%)

− 21.7 17.5 80.2 <0.0001 Mast cell stabilizers and/or nearly leucotriene agonist (%) − 5.5 5.8 19.2 <0.0001 Vitamin D supplement (%) 59.1 56.7 59.8 63.1 0.53 Calcium supplement (%) 65.1 63.4 68.6 69.9 0.42 BMD total spine (g/cm2) 1.08 ± 0.18 1.05 ± 0.19 1.03 ± 0.16 1.03 ± 0.20 <0.0001 BMD total hip (g/cm2) 0.96 ± 0.14 0.94 ± 0.14 0.92 ± 0.13 0.93 ± 0.15 <0.0001 BMD femoral neck (g/cm2) 0.79 ± 0.13 0.77 ± 0.13 0.76 ± 0.13 0.76 ± 0.14 <0.0001 NA not available aphysical activity scale elderly (PASE) score Oral corticosteroid use, smoking, decreased physical activity, self-reported fair/poor/very poor health, a history of stroke, and a history of coronary artery disease were independently associated with COPD or asthma in age-adjusted logistic regression models. Men who were prescribed oral corticosteroids were almost four times more likely to report a physician diagnosis of COPD or asthma (OR 3.88 (95% CI 2.66–5.64)).