Pedersen 2010 b.

Methods	Same as above
Participants	SYMPTOMATIC PARTICIPANTS RANDOMLY ASSIGNED: N = ANALYSED PARTICIPANTS: N = 462 INTERVENTION: ICS (ciclesonide 40 μg/d): 305 CONTROL: ICS (ciclesonide 160 μg/d): 310 WITHDRAWALS: reported AGE: median (years) (range): INTERVENTION: ICS (ciclesonide 40 μg/d): 8.0 (6‐11) CONTROL: ICS (ciclesonide 160 μg/d): 9.0 (6‐11) GENDER: N (male %): INTERVENTION: ICS (ciclesonide 40 μg/d): 210 (68.9%) CONTROL: ICS (ciclesonide 160 μg/d): 218 (70.3%) ASTHMA SEVERITY: persistent asthma but severity not reported ASTHMA DURATION: median (months) (range): INTERVENTION: ICS (ciclesonide 40 μg/d): 41.4 (6‐127) CONTROL: ICS (ciclesonide 160 μg/d): 41.7 (6‐129) MEAN (± SD) β2‐AGONIST USE (puffs/d): median (months) (range) INTERVENTION: ICS (ciclesonide 40 μg/d): 1.43 (0.00‐7.86) CONTROL: ICS (ciclesonide 160 μg/d): 1.57 (0.00‐7.71) DOSE OF ICS AT STUDY ENTRY AND AT RUN‐IN: placebo ATOPY (% of participants): not reported ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA Same as above EXCLUSION CRITERIA Same as above
Interventions	PROTOCOL DURATION Run‐in = 2 to 4 weeks Intervention = 12 weeks DEVICE: metered‐dose inhaler with or without spacer DOSE OF ICS INTERVENTION: ciclesonide 40 μg/d CONTROL: ciclesonide 160 μg/d CRITERIA FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM STUDY: reported
Outcomes	Same as above
Notes	Same as above
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Using a computer random number generator
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Insufficient information
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Blinding of participants and key study personnel ensured
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Blinding of participants and key study personnel ensured
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No missing outcome data
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	Study protocol not available but published reports include all expected outcomes, including those that were prespecified
Other bias	Low risk	Study apparently free of other sources of bias