Does the use of inhaled corticosteroids in asthma benefit lung function in the long-term? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

"Conflict of interest: D.J. Tan has nothing to disclose.: Conflict of interest: D.S. Bui has nothing to disclose.: Conflict of interest: X. Dai has nothing to disclose.: Conflict of interest: C.J. Lodge has nothing to disclose.: Conflict of interest: A.J. Lowe reports grants from National Health and Medical Research Council, during the conduct of the study.: Conflict of interest: P.S. Thomas reports having participated in advisory board meetings for GSK and Astra Zeneca, unrelated to this work.: Conflict of interest: D. Jarvis has nothing to disclose.: Conflict of interest: M.J. Abramson reports grants from Pfizer and Boehringer Ingelheim, personal fees and non-financial support from Sanofi, and personal fees from GSK, outside the submitted work.: Conflict of interest: E.H. Walters has nothing to disclose.: Conflict of interest: J.L. Perret reports a travel grant from Boehringer-Ingelheim, outside the submitted work.: Conflict of interest: S.C. Dharmage has nothing to disclose."

"Support statement: This study was supported by funds from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia European collaborative grant scheme (1101313) as part of ALEC (Ageing Lungs in European Cohorts funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement 633212). The funding bodies were not involved in the included work nor the decision to publish. DJT was supported by a NHMRC Postgraduate Scholarship and Royal Australian College of Physicians (RACP) Woolcock Scholarship. Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry."

"The protocol for this systematic review was registered prospectively in the PROSPERO database in September 2017 (registration number: CRD42017053543). FVC and BHR were added as outcomes of interest after protocol registration. This study is registered at www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero with identifier CRD42017053543"