Application of an algorithm to analyse patterns of intermittent oral corticosteroid use in asthma

Acknowledgements This project is based in part/wholly on data from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database (opcrd.co.uk) obtained under licence from Optimum Patient Care Limited and its execution is approved by recognised experts affiliated to the Respiratory Effectiveness Group. However, the interpretation and conclusion contained in this manuscript are those of the authors alone. AstraZeneca funded the study and had a role in study design and data interpretation. The Observational & Pragmatic Research Institute had a role in study design and delivered the study protocol, data analysis, data interpretation and study report. The Observational & Pragmatic Research Institute received no funding for manuscript writing. The corresponding author had full access to all the data and had final responsibility to submit for publication. We would like to thank Sam Hijazi and Stefan Courtney for providing medical writing support, which was funded by AstraZeneca in accordance with Good Publication Practice (GPP3) guidelines (http://www.ismpp.org/gpp3).Peer reviewedPublisher PD