Is taking 5mg of prednisone daily for a year considered fairly safe?

Depends: Chronic use of any medications, inherently carries risk. Prednisone daily may be needed to treat certain conditions, and without it, would cause more harm than its continuous usage. We as doctors and patients must always weigh the risk vs. The benefit. With that being said, long tern Prednisone use may cause an increased risk of several different issues.