Should Wheezing Preschool Children Get Oral Corticosteroids?

For preschool children (age range, 1–5 years) who present with wheezing in the acute care setting, clinicians often must make challenging decisions on whether to treat them with oral corticosteroids. Placebo-controlled trials have yielded discordant results about the effectiveness of steroids, which has discouraged a unified treatment approach.

In this meta-analysis, researchers analyzed individual participant–level data from 7 placebo-controlled, randomized trials. A total of 1728 preschool children who presented to the hospital with wheezing received oral prednisolone (the steroid used in each of the trials) or placebo. Results for children who received oral prednisolone, versus those who received placebo, were as follows:

• Meaningfully lowe…