The European respiratory journal : official journal of the European Society for Clinical Respiratory Physiology
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The objective of this study was to describe risks of death and asthma outcomes with prescription of long-acting β(2)-agonists (LABA), short-acting β(2)-agonists (SABA) or inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in general practice. The study population included β(2)-agonist users aged ≥18 yrs, who were in the UK General Practice Research Database (GPRD), which is linked to the national registry of hospitalisations. The study included 507,966 patients with 5.5 million SABA, 4.0 million ICS and 1.3 million LABA prescriptions. ⋯ Risks for death and asthma outcomes varied substantially with exposure characteristics. The statistical power for detecting increases in asthma death was low. The results of this study did not indicate that LABA exposure was associated with an increased risk for all-cause mortality.