Education＆ScienceEducational Article

Comment by Mark Lavercombe: The worldwide shift towards using LABA/ICS for maintenance and reliever therapy (MART) in asthma is explored in this paper from New Zealand, which evaluates prescribing patterns over eleven years from 2013. The authors demonstrate a dramatic increase in the prescription of budesonide/formoterol since 2019 associated with a significant reduction in asthma discharges from hospital. The indigenous Māori population had asthma admissions rates 2.5 times higher than non-Māori, and budesonide/formoterol MART improved asthma symptoms and reduced asthma hospitalisations more in this group than in non-Māori.