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An observational study using pharmacy and medical claims was used to determine whether there are differences in asthma care cost between patients that are newly started on montelukast and low-dose fluticasone propionate. Patients were identified who had at least one ICD-9 (493.XX) claim for asthma and were newly prescribed inhaled fluticasone propionate 44 μ g (FP) or montelukast 5 or 10 mg (MON). Subjects could not have had a claim for any inhaled corticosteroid or oral leukotriene modifier in 9 months prior to the first prescription claim for either FP or MON. They were subsequently followed for 9 months. Multi-variate regression analysis was used to determine the influence of these single-controller therapies on post-index asthma related costs. Positively skewed cost variables were log-transformed prior to their inclusion into the multi-variate model. Asthma-related costs were adjusted for age, gender, health plan, co-morbidities, pre-index asthma medication use and pre-index asthma care costs. Multi-variate regression analysis, adjusting for baseline covariates, indicated that compared to treatment with montelukast, treatment with FP had significantly (P