1. Study baseline characteristics.
| Intervention group | Intervention | COPD severity | Concomitant medication | Exacerbations in the last 12 months prior to study enrolment | Hospitalisations in the last 12 months prior to study enrolment | Study ID |
| Single‐component interventions | Change to pharmacological treatment | GOLD stage III to IV | Anticholinergics, LABAs, ICS, LABA+ICS | Mean number of exacerbations: SFC: 2.2 (SD 0.5) and sal/FP: mean 2.3 (SD 0.6) | Number of people who had 1 hospitalisation: SFC: 19/107; sal/FP: 15/105 Number of people who had 2–4 hospitalisations: SFC: 4/107; sal/FP: 3/105 |
Hagedorn 2013 |
| Moderate to severe | NR | NR | NR | Mochizuki 2013 | ||
| Severe to very severe | LABA, LAMA, LABA+LAMA, ICS+LABA, ICS+LABA+LAMA | NR | NR | Park 2019 | ||
| Adherence aids | Moderate to severe | ICS/LABA | NR | NR | Criner 2018 | |
| Education | Mild to severe | NR | NR | NR | De Tullio 1987 | |
| Behavioural/psychological | Mild to very severe | NR | NR | NR | Naderloo 2018 | |
| Communication or follow‐up by HCP | No studies identified | |||||
| Multi‐component interventions | — | Moderate to severe | NR | NR | NR | Grandos‐Santiago 2020 |
| Moderate to severe | Median number of medications: 8 in each treatment group | NR | Mean hospital admissions (in the last 6 months): intervention: 52.0; control: 57.0 | Jarab 2012 | ||
| Mild to moderate | Anticholinergics, beta2‐adrenergics, ICS, xanthine | Mean exacerbations intervention: 0.92; control 0.82 | NR | Leiva‐Fernandez 2014 | ||
| Moderate to severe | Mean of 8 medications at baseline | NR | — | Khdour 2009 | ||
| NR | NR | NR | NR | Margolis 2013 | ||
| Moderate to very severe | LABA, LAAC, ICS, ICS+LABA (1 inhaler) | NR | NR | To 2020 | ||
| NR | SABA, LABA, SAAC, LAAC, SAAC+SABA, ICS, ICS+LABA, LAAC+LABA+ICS, theophylline, oral corticosteroids (mean number of COPD medications: 2.3) | 54% participants in each treatment group had ≥ 1 exacerbations | NR | Tommelein 2014 | ||
| Mild to severe | Anticholinergics, LABA, ICS, xanthines, carbocisteine | NR | NR | Wei 2014 | ||
| Moderate to severe | SABA, SAAC, LABA, LAMA, ICS | NR | NR | Thom 2018 | ||
COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; GOLD: Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; HCP: healthcare professional; ICS: inhaled corticosteroid; LAAC: long‐acting anticholinergic; LABA: long‐acting beta2‐adrenoceptor agonist; LAMA: long‐acting muscarinic receptor antagonist; NR: not reported; SAAC: short‐acting anticholinergic; SABA: short‐acting beta2‐adrenoceptor agonist; SD: standard deviation; SFC: salmeterol–fluticasone combination; sal/FP: salmeterol/fluticasone propionate.