Numbers of subjects withdrawn due to asthma and number of subjects with at least one moderate or severe exacerbation, and associated odds ratios (95% CI) between treatment with salmeterol and increased dose of inhaled corticosteroid
| Study | Withdrawals due to asthma | Moderate or severe exacerbations* | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sal | ICS | OR (95% CI) | Sal | ICS | OR (95% CI) | ||
| OR, Odds ratio for withdrawal (greater than 1 means ICS more likely to withdraw and favours salmeterol). Note that a continuity correction was used for this analysis because the van Noord data set had a “zero” cell count. | |||||||
| Sal, group receiving added salmeterol; ICS, group receiving increased dose of inhaled steroid. | |||||||
| *Number of participants with one or more moderate or severe exacerbations of asthma. | |||||||
| Greening | 7/220 | 14/206 | 2.22 (0.88 to 5.61) | 19/220 | 19/206 | 1.07 (0.56 to 2.08) | |
| van Noord(low dose) | – | – | – | 0/30 | 2/30 | 5.35 (0.25 to 116.32) | |
| Vermetten | 6/113 | 10/120 | 1.62 (0.57 to 4.62) | 9/113 | 17/120 | 1.86 (0.81 to 4.29) | |
| Busse | 14/281 | 20/277 | 1.48 (0.73 to 3.00) | 8/281 | 6/277 | 0.77 (0.27 to 2.17) | |
| Bloom | 15/295 | 22/279 | 1.60 (0.81 to 3.15) | 6/295 | 9/279 | 1.56 (0.57 to 4.30) | |
| Kelsen | 3/239 | 6/244 | 1.98 (0.49 to 8.02) | 38/239 | 44/244 | 1.16 (0.72 to 1.72) | |
| Murray | 5/260 | 5/254 | 1.02 (0.29 to 3.58) | 43/260 | 45/254 | 1.09 (0.69 to 1.72) | |
| Kalberg | – | – | – | 20/246 | 32/242 | 1.71 (0.95 to 3.06) | |
| Condemi | 2/221 | 6/216 | 3.13 (0.62 to 15.68) | 21/221 | 31/216 | 1.58 (0.88 to 2.84) | |
| FLTA4021 | 1/118 | 1/114 | 1.04 (0.06 to 16.75) | 7/118 | 8/114 | 1.19 (0.43 to 3.28) | |
| FLTA4022 | 1/113 | 1/109 | 1.04 (0.06 to 16.79) | 4/113 | 20/109 | 5.57 (1.94 to 16.05) | |
| Johansson | 3/176 | 1/173 | 0.34 (0.03 to 3.26) | 9/176 | 10/173 | 1.13 (0.46 to 2.80) | |
| Pooled estimates of effect (95% CI) | |||||||
| Fixed effect | 1.58 (1.12 to 2.24) | 1.35 (1.10 to 1.66) | |||||
| Random effect | 1.58 (1.12 to 2.24) | 1.37 (1.10 to 1.70) | |||||
| Inconsistency measurements | 0 (0 to 10) | 10.4 (0 to 49.7) | |||||