Methods	Parallel-group study Jadad quality score: 1
Participants	Symptomatic asthmatic children % ELIGIBLE OF SCREENED POPULATION: Not reported % RUN-IN PARTICIPANTS RANDOMISED: Not reported RANDOMISED: 20 (BDP/Sal: 10; BDP: 10) WITHDRAWALS: Not described AGE range: 6 to 19 years GENDER (% male): Not described SEVERITY: Moderate BASELINE % PREDICTED FEV1: Not described ASTHMA DURATION: Not reported ATOPY(%): Not reported ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Still symptomatic despite maintenance treatment with 200 mcg bid of BDP EXCLUSION CRITERIA: Not described
Interventions	LABA + ICS vs INCREASED dose ICS OUTCOMES: reported at 8,12 weeks RUN-IN PERIOD: 2 weeks DOSE OF ICS DURING RUN-IN: BDP 200 bid DOSE OPTIMISATION PERIOD: None INTERVENTION PERIOD: 12 weeks TEST GROUP: Salmeterol 50 mcg bid + beclomethasone 200 mcg bid CONTROL GROUP: Beclomethasone 400 bid DEVICE: Not specified NUMBER OF DEVICES: 2 COMPLIANCE: Not reported CO-TREATMENT: Not specified
Outcomes	PULMONARY FUNCTION TEST: FEV1; PEF; FEF 25% to 75% SYMPTOM SCORES: Daily symptoms (no data for control group) FUNCTIONAL STATUS: Not reported INFLAMMATORY MARKERS: Not reported ADVERSE EFFECTS: Not reported WITHDRAWAL: Not reported
Notes	Abstract Funding not reported Confirmation of methodology and data extraction: Not obtained User-defined order: 400
Risk of bias
Item	Authors’ judgement	Description
Adequate sequence generation?	Unclear	Described as randomised; no other information presented
Allocation concealment?	Unclear	Information not available
Blinding? All outcomes	No	Open label
Incomplete outcome data addressed? All outcomes	Unclear	No information provided
Free of selective reporting?	Unclear	Unclear whether data on OCS-treated exacerbations were collected in the study