About the Authors

David B. Price

dprice@opri.sg

Affiliations Academic Primary Care, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom, Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, Singapore, Singapore

Richard Russell

Affiliation Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Rafael Mares

Affiliation Research in Real Life Ltd, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Anne Burden

Affiliation Cambridge Research Support, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Derek Skinner

Affiliation Optimum Patient Care, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Helga Mikkelsen

Affiliation Cambridge Research Support, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Cherlyn Ding

Affiliation Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, Singapore, Singapore

Richard Brice

Affiliation Whitstable Medical Practice, Whitstable, Canterbury, United Kingdom

Niels H. Chavannes

Affiliation Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands

Janwillem W. H. Kocks

Affiliation Department of General Practice and GRIAC Research Institute, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands

Jeffrey W. Stephens

Affiliation Diabetes Research Group, Institute of Life Sciences, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom

John Haughney

Affiliation Academic Primary Care, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form at www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: JH has received personal fees and non-financial support from Astra Zeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim, personal fees from Chiesi, Cipla and Novartis, grants from GlaxoSmithKline, and grants and personal fees from Mundipharma and Teva outside the submitted work. JWHK reports personal fees from Astra Zeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim and Novartis, grants and personal fees from GlaxoSmithKline, and grants from Zorgdraad Foundation outside the submitted work. RB reports grants and personal fees from Janssen, Boehringer Ingelheim and MSD, and personal fees from Sanofi, Astra Zeneca, Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Takeda outside the submitted work. RR reports personal fees and non-financial support from Boehringer Ingelheim, and personal fees from GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Teva UK, Sandoz and Almirall outside the submitted work. DP reports board membership with Aerocrine, Almirall, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Meda, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis International, and Teva; consultancy with Almirall, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Meda, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis International, Pfizer, and Teva; grants and unrestricted funding for investigator-initiated studies from the UK National Health Service, British Lung Foundation, Aerocrine, AKL Ltd, Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Meda, Merck, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis International, Orion, Pfizer, Respiratory Effectiveness Group, Takeda, Teva, and Zentiva; payments for lectures/speaking from Almirall, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Cipla, GlaxoSmithKline, Kyorin, Meda, Merck, Mundipharma, Novartis International, Pfizer, SkyePharma, Takeda, and Teva; payment for manuscript preparation from Mundipharma and Teva; patents (planned, pending or issued) from AKL Ltd; payment for the development of educational materials from GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis; stock/stock options from AKL Ltd which produces phytopharmaceuticals; owns 80% of Research in Real Life Ltd and its subsidiary social enterprise Optimum Patient Care; received payment for travel/accommodations/meeting expenses from Aerocrine, Boehringer Ingelheim, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis International, and Teva; funding for patient enrolment or completion of research from Almirral, Chiesi, Teva, and Zentiva; and peer reviewer for grant committees of the Medical Research Council (2014), Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation programme (2012), HTA (2014). RM is an employee at Research in Real Life, which received a grant from Boehringer Ingelheim to conduct this research and which has conducted paid research in respiratory disease on behalf of Aerocrine, AKL Ltd, Almirall, AstraZeneca, British Lung Foundation, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, GlaxoSmithKline, Meda, Mundipharma, Napp, Novartis, Orion, Respiratory Effectiveness Group, Takeda, Teva, and Zentiva. AB, HM and CD are employees at Cambridge Research Support and Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, which are contracted by Research in Real life to provide statistical and medical writing services. Access to data from the Optimum Patient Care Research Database was co-funded by Research in Real Life Ltd. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: DBP RR RM AB DS HM CD RB NHC JWHK JWS JH. Data curation: RM AB DS. Formal analysis: RM AB. Funding acquisition: DBP. Investigation: DBP RR RM AB DS HM CD RB NHC JWHK JWS JH. Methodology: DBP RR RM AB DS HM CD RB NHC JWHK JWS JH. Project administration: RM AB. Resources: DBP. Software: RM AB DS. Supervision: DBP JH. Validation: RM AB DS. Visualization: RM AB. Writing – original draft: HM. Writing – review & editing: DBP RR RM AB DS HM CD RB NHC JWHK JWS JH.