TY - JOUR T1 - Review: long acting β agonists increase severe asthma exacerbations and asthma related deaths in children and adults JF - Evidence Based Medicine JO - Evid Based Med SP - 10 LP - 10 DO - 10.1136/ebm.12.1.10 VL - 12 IS - 1 A2 - , Y1 - 2007/02/01 UR - http://ebm.bmj.com/content/12/1/10.abstract N2 - Salpeter SR, Buckley NS, Ormiston TM, et al. Meta-analysis: effect of long-acting beta-agonists on severe asthma exacerbations and asthma-related deaths. Ann Intern Med 2006;144:904–2.OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science 
 
 Q In children and adults with asthma, do long acting β agonists (LABAs) increase severe asthma exacerbations requiring hospital admission, life threatening asthma attacks, and asthma related deaths? Clinical impact ratings GP/FP/Primary care ★★★★★★☆ Internal medicine ★★★★★★☆ Allergy & immunology ★★★★★★☆ Emergency medicine ★★★★★☆☆ Respirology ★★★★★☆☆ Data sources: Medline, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, CINAHL, and Cochrane databases (all from 1966 to December 2005); references of selected reviews; and the US Food and Drug Administration website. Study selection and assessment: randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in any language that compared LABAs (salmeterol, formoterol, or eformoterol) with placebo and had ⩾3 month follow up. Patients were allowed to use short acting β agonists if needed. 19 RCTs (n = 33 826; mean age 37–38 y, 51% men) met the selection criteria. Quality assessment of individual studies was based on randomisation procedure, allocation concealment, blinding, dropouts and … ER -