Treatment failure overall and for patients with or without inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) prescriptions in the baseline year for patients treated with oral corticosteroids (OCS) for COPD exacerbations in a primary-care setting (Cohort 1) and patients hospitalised due to COPD exacerbations (Cohort 2)
| Outcome | Population size n | Failure overall | Failure with ICS | Failure without ICS | p-value ICS versus no ICS |
| Cohort 1 (n=2482) | |||||
| Overall treatment failure# | 2482¶ | 1103 (44.4) | 914 (45.0) | 189 (42.0) | 0.250 |
| Hospital admission for COPD | 2482¶ | 255 (10.3) | 218 (10.7) | 37 (8.2) | 0.113 |
| OCS repeat prescription | 6416 | 2187 (34.1) | 1752 (34.6) | 435 (32.3) | 0.118 |
| Antibiotic prescription | 6416 | 623 (9.7) | 525 (10.4) | 98 (7.3) | 0.001 |
| Cohort 2 (n=10 245) | |||||
| Hospital readmission | 10 245 | 1189 (11.6) | 986 (11.9) | 203 (10.5) | 0.084 |
Data are presented as n (%) unless otherwise stated. HES: Hospital Episode Statistics. #: overall treatment failure for patients with HES linkage; treatment failure was defined as a COPD-related hospital admission or accident and emergency department visit, prescription for antibiotics with lower respiratory consultation or a repeat prescription for OCS. ¶: patients with HES linkage.