Reported risk of adverse outcomes associated with exposure to systemic corticosteroids (SCS)
| Adverse outcome | HR (95% CI) SCS versus non-SCS [20] | OR (95% CI) incident new AEs# [33] | Incident rate ratio (95% CI)¶ [14] | 15-year cumulative incidence SCS versus non-SCS [34] |
| Osteoporosis diagnosis | 1.96 (1.63−2.34) | 1.44 (1.28−1.63) | 8.0 versus 2.0 | |
| Fractures | 3.11 (1.87−5.19) | 1.21 (1.04−1.40) | 1.87 (1.69−2.08) | |
| Pneumonia | 2.68 (2.30−3.11) | 11.3 versus 3.5 | ||
| Cardiovascular/cerebrovascular disease | 1.53 (1.36−1.72) | 9.9 versus 3.6 | ||
| Myocardial infarction | 1.41 (1.15−1.73) | 7.3 versus 2.8 | ||
| Venous thromboembolism | 3.33 (2.78−3.99) | |||
| Cataract | 1.50 (1.31−1.73) | 1.26 (1.03−1.52) | 11.0 versus 4.4 | |
| Sleep apnoea | 1.40 (1.04−1.86) | |||
| Renal impairment | 1.36 (1.26−1.47) | |||
| Depression/anxiety | 1.31 (1.21−1.41) | |||
| Type II diabetes | 1.26 (1.15−1.37) | 1.30 (1.13−1.50) | ||
| BMI increase | 1.14 (1.10−1.18) | |||
| Obesity | 1.28 (1.13−1.45) | |||
| Gastrointestinal ulcer/bleeds | 1.33 (1.15−1.54) | |||
| Sepsis | 5.30 (3.80−7.41) |
Data are presented as %, unless otherwise stated. BMI: body mass index; AEs: adverse events. #: patients with ≥4 prescriptions for SCS in the current year; ¶: 5−30 days from date when corticosteroid prescription was filled, reference period was 5−180 days before prescription date.