Patient demographics
| Budesonide–formoterol as needed | Maintenance budesonide | |
| Patients | 55 | 55 |
| Age years | 48.1±14 | 51.4±14 |
| Age at diagnosis years | 23.1±20 | 23.3±19.2 |
| Female | 28 (51) | 28 (51) |
| Ethnicity | ||
| Asian | 1 (2) | 2 (4) |
| European | 45 (82) | 46 (84) |
| Māori | 4 (7) | 3 (6) |
| Other | 1 (2) | 2 (4) |
| Pacific | 4 (7) | 2 (4) |
| Smoking status | ||
| Current smoker | 1 (2) | 2 (4) |
| Ex-smoker | 13 (24) | 20 (36) |
| Never-smoker | 41 (75) | 33 (60) |
| Pack-years (ever-smoker) | 4.9±4.8 | 6.2±5.9 |
| ICS use ever# | 51 (93) | 47 (86) |
| ICS use at randomisation# | 36 (66) | 37 (67) |
| Self-reported adherence to ICS % prescribed dose¶ | 50.4±34.8 | 60.1±33.8 |
| Weekly SABA use occasions | ||
| Mean | 3.7±4.9 | 3.3±4.1 |
| Median | 2 (1–5) | 2 (1– 5) |
| Severe exacerbation in year prior to randomisation | 0.1±0.3 | 0.1±0.3 |
| ACQ-5 score at randomisation+ | 1.1±0.9 | 0.9±0.7 |
| Eosinophil count at randomisation ×109 L−1 | 0.3±0.2 | 0.2±0.2 |
| FEV1 % pred at randomisation§ | 87.4±15.3 | 88.4±14.4 |
| FENO ppb | 23 (14–63) | 19 (12–31) |
Data are presented as n, mean±sd, n (%) or median (interquartile range). ICS: inhaled corticosteroid; SABA: short-acting β2-agonist; ACQ-5: five-item Asthma Control Questionnaire; FEV1: forced expiratory volume in 1 s; FENO: exhaled nitric oxide fraction. #: participants self-reported ICS use ever and in the 12 weeks prior to randomisation; ¶: participant-reported adherence to ICS in the 4 weeks prior to enrolment; +: the ACQ-5 consists of five questions that assess asthma symptoms in the previous week, each of which is scored on a 7-point scale that ranges from 0 (no impairment) to 6 (maximum impairment) and averaged, in which a 0.5-unit change represents the minimal clinically important difference; §: participants received no specific instruction to withhold use of their bronchodilator before measurement of FEV1 [32].