OBJECTIVES: While appropriate and timely management of asthma can prevent exacerbations and mortality, the inappropriate use of asthma medication remains prevalent. We conducted a targeted systematic review of the quantitative evidence on asthma medication use with specific regard to the use of short-acting β-agonists (SABA) and inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in asthma patients. METHODS: English language articles with abstracts assessing quantitative evidence on ICS and SABA use in patients aged ≥12 years with asthma (1 January 2012‒6 March 2018) were identified using Medline and Embase. RESULTS: Overall, 451 publications were identified. After removing duplicates, 357 publications were screened and 24 publications were deemed eligible and selected for extraction. Inappropriate SABA use was defined as overreliance, high, and excessive use. Excessive use was defined as ≥12 SABA canisters prescribed/year regardless of ICS use or >32 actuations of salbutamol/24-hours. SABA prescriptions of ≥13 canisters/year was reported in 8.9% of adults (18–54 years) and 18.3% of mature adults (55–75 years). Inappropriate ICS use was also defined as high, suboptimal, and underuse with ICS underuse defined as <10 ICS canisters prescribed/year. Overall, ten studies discussed inappropriate use of ICS with ICS underuse reported in 76% of patients in one study population. Three further studies reported that 15%, 10%, and 38% of patients had suboptimal, high, and no ICS use for asthma management, respectively. In fifteen studies, inappropriate use of ICS and SABA was associated with poor clinical outcomes leading to an increase in outpatient services and total asthma-related costs. In nine studies, inappropriate use of SABA and ICS was associated with sociodemographic characteristics including age, geographic location, level of education, race/ethnicity and level of income. CONCLUSIONS: Overreliance of SABA, underuse of ICS, and ICS discontinuation are highly prevalent and associated with poor asthma outcomes and increased asthma-related healthcare resource utilization.