Table 1.

Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria for Study Selection

Study Criteria	Inclusion	Exclusion
Patients	Studies evaluating patients aged >18 years with COPD who are treated with ICS	Studies evaluating patients without COPD, or patients not treated with ICS
Interventions	Budesonide for inhalation, alone or in combination with other inhaled medications for COPD	Studies without inhaled budesonide treatment
Comparators	Fluticasone for inhalation, alone or in combination with other inhaled medications for COPD	Studies without inhaled fluticasone treatment
Outcomes	Pneumonia as a primary or secondary outcome in observational studies, or as any type of outcome in clinical trials	Observational studies not reporting pneumonia as a primary or secondary outcome, or clinical trials not reporting pneumonia as any outcome
Study design	Observational studies (prospective/retrospective) or clinical trials (randomized/nonrandomized) published in English	Animal, in vitro, or genetic studies; crossover studies, case studies, case reports, letters, and editorials; comparative studies with <15 patients per treatment arm; studies not published in English
Time frame	Studies published from January 1, 1969 to May 31, 2019	Studies published before January 1, 1969 or after May 31, 2019

Abbreviations: COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; ICS, inhaled corticosteroids.