FIGURE 1.

Metered‐dose inhaler (MDI) prescription proportion by statement of explicit preference for inhaler type in guidance. Point estimate and distribution of MDI prescriptions (as a proportion of total inhaler prescribing) is shown for 3 groups of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs); those with no recommendation in their guidance, those that explicitly recommended dry powder inhalers (DPIs) overall and those that explicitly recommended MDIs overall. Prescription data include all indications for inhalers (including asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) but excludes salbutamol relievers. For each group, the blue box represents the interquartile range, the black bar shows the median value and the whiskers show 1.5× interquartile range outside of the first and third quartiles. Data points outside this range are shown as unfilled circles, each representing 1 CCG. On pairwise comparisons with the Bonferroni correction the only significant difference is between MDIs recommended and no recommendation (Kruskal–Wallis H = 9.02, 2), adjusted significance: P = .011). No significant difference was found between DPIs recommended and MDIs recommended or DPIs recommended and no recommendation (adjusted significance: P = .146, P > .999)