Fig. 1

The selection process of the children included in the analysis. Children from 0 to 14 years old were included, who had a diagnosis of asthma, identified by the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems revision 10 (ICD-10) code (ICD-10 J45 and J46). Various clinical types of asthma was included, namely bronchial asthma, cough variant asthma, and infantile asthma, but those children diagnosed as asthmatic bronchitis were excluded. Considering that several severe and chronic diseases or conditions might affect the medication for children with asthma, patients with heart failure, malignancy, uremia, intellectual disability, or mental illness were excluded from the present study