Figure 2.

Individual patterns of daily budesonide/formoterol use in the 14 days before hospital attendance in the SMART group. Hospital attendances owing to Emergency Department (ED) visit or hospital admission are specified for each participant. The x axis is days preceding or following the first hospital attendance (i.e., day −1 refers to the 24 h before the first hospital attendance, and day 1 refers to the 24 h following the first hospital attendance). Data extraction was for fourteen 24-h periods before the attendance time at hospital. The y axis is the number of actuations per 24 h. Dashed horizontal lines represent the thresholds of β₂-agonist use per day above which self-management plans recommend medical review (>12 actuations of budesonide/formoterol per day for SMART patients). (d) The participant self-initiated prednisone for asthma (40 mg per day for 4 days) on day −4 (without subsequent medical review until hospital attendance). (g) The participant had four hospital attendances, identified by the solid arrows (hospital admissions occurred for the first and last attendances; ED visits occurred for the second and third attendances). Before the first ED visit, the participant who attended was seen by their general practitioner (GP). The participant was prescribed prednisone (40 mg per day for 7 days, followed by a weaning course over the next 21 days).