Trial reportThe New England journal of medicine2019
Controlled Trial of Budesonide-Formoterol as Needed for Mild Asthma.
Trial report in The New England journal of medicine, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06568445 (Efficacy of Regular ICS/LABA Sequential As-Needed Therapy in Newly Diagnosed Mild Asthma Patients), which is not on this map. Cited by 175 papers, 11 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Efficacy of Regular ICS/LABA Sequential As-Needed Therapy in Newly Diagnosed Mild Asthma Patients: A Randomized, Parallel, Positive-Control Study
Who cites it
175 citing papers in PubMed, 11 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 447 citations in OpenAlex.
- Symptom burden to characterise, predict, and prevent asthma attacks: a patient-level meta-analysis of randomised trials and translational prospective studies.The Lancet. Respiratory medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Adverse Outcomes Associated With Short-Acting Beta-Agonist Overuse in Asthma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Allergy · 2025Pooled it
- Inflammatory and clinical risk factors for asthma attacks (ORACLE2): a patient-level meta-analysis of control groups of 22 randomised trials.The Lancet. Respiratory medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Regular versus as-needed treatments for mild asthma in children, adolescents, and adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Safety outcomes of salbutamol: A systematic review and meta-analysis.The clinical respiratory journal · 2023Pooled it
- Combination fixed-dose β agonist and steroid inhaler as required for adults or children with mild asthma: a Cochrane systematic review.BMJ evidence-based medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Comparative efficacy of inhalers in mild-to-moderate asthma: systematic review and network meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Inhaled corticosteroids and risk of influenza in patients with asthma: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2021Pooled it
- Combination fixed-dose beta agonist and steroid inhaler as required for adults or children with mild asthma.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Does the use of inhaled corticosteroids in asthma benefit lung function in the long-term? A systematic review and meta-analysis.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2021Pooled it
- 2020 Brazilian Thoracic Association recommendations for the management of asthma.Jornal brasileiro de pneumologia : publicacao oficial da Sociedade Brasileira de Pneumologia e TisilogiaGuideline
- Treatable Trait Guided Asthma Management: A Feasibility Study.Respirology (Carlton, Vic.) · 2025Trial
- Perspectives of mild asthma patients on maintenance versus as-needed preventer treatment regimens: a qualitative study.BMJ open · 2022Trial
- SABA Overuse in Russia - Burden and Possible Causes: An Analysis of the Russian Population in the SABINA III (SABA use IN Asthma) Study.Journal of asthma and allergy · 2022Trial
- Positioning As-needed Budesonide-Formoterol for Mild Asthma: Effect of Prestudy Treatment in Pooled Analysis of SYGMA 1 and 2.Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2021Trial
- Cost-effectiveness of anti-inflammatory reliever (AIR) or maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) for mild to moderate asthma: a systematic review.BMJ open respiratory research · 2026Article
- EBM BLS: Albuterol-Budesonide as Needed Resulted in Fewer Severe Asthma Exacerbations than Albuterol Alone for Patients with Mild Asthma.Journal of general internal medicine · 2026Article
- Mechanisms and therapeutic strategies of asthma: from bench to bedside.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Pediatric Mild Asthma: Bridging Current Gaps to Improve Future Care.Pediatric pulmonology · 2026Review
- Association of Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide With Pulmonary Health and All-Cause Mortality in a Population Without Airflow Limitation.Chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (Miami, Fla.) · 2026Article
115 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, budesonide-formoterol used on an as-needed basis resulted in a lower risk of severe exacerbation of asthma than as-needed use of a short-acting β
methodsWe conducted a 52-week, randomized, open-label, parallel-group, controlled trial involving adults with mild asthma. Patients were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: albuterol (100 μg, two inhalations from a pressurized metered-dose inhaler as needed for asthma symptoms) (albuterol group); budesonide (200 μg, one inhalation through a Turbuhaler twice daily) plus as-needed albuterol (budesonide maintenance group); or budesonide-formoterol (200 μg of budesonide and 6 μg of formoterol, one inhalation through a Turbuhaler as needed) (budesonide-formoterol group). Electronic monitoring of inhalers was used to measure medication use. The primary outcome was the annualized rate of asthma exacerbations.
resultsThe analysis included 668 of 675 patients who underwent randomization. The annualized exacerbation rate in the budesonide-formoterol group was lower than that in the albuterol group (absolute rate, 0.195 vs. 0.400; relative rate, 0.49; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33 to 0.72; P<0.001) and did not differ significantly from the rate in the budesonide maintenance group (absolute rate, 0.195 in the budesonide-formoterol group vs. 0.175 in the budesonide maintenance group; relative rate, 1.12; 95% CI, 0.70 to 1.79; P = 0.65). The number of severe exacerbations was lower in the budesonide-formoterol group than in both the albuterol group (9 vs. 23; relative risk, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.18 to 0.86) and the budesonide maintenance group (9 vs. 21; relative risk, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.20 to 0.96). The mean (±SD) dose of inhaled budesonide was 107±109 μg per day in the budesonide-formoterol group and 222±113 μg per day in the budesonide maintenance group. The incidence and type of adverse events reported were consistent with those in previous trials and with reports in clinical use.
conclusionsIn an open-label trial involving adults with mild asthma, budesonide-formoterol used as needed was superior to albuterol used as needed for the prevention of asthma exacerbations. (Funded by AstraZeneca and the Health Research Council of New Zealand; Novel START Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry number, ACTRN12615000999538.).
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.