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Patients' and doctors' views on respiratory tract symptoms

Objective - To explore the views of patients and doctors on respiratory tract symptoms. Design - Transversal survey among patients and general practitioners. Setting - Primary health care and community. Subjects - 51 patients attending a general practitioner, 38 patients in the community, 7 general practitioners. Main outcome measures - Patients' and doctors' views on respiratory tract symptoms and differences between them: agreement with statements rated on a 5-point scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (5). Results - Patients less than doctors endorsed the self-limiting character of cough, sore throat and earache (mean 3.1,3.4 and 2.9 versus 4.1,4.1 and 3.7) and patients - much more than doctors - rated antibiotics as being necessary for cough and sore throat (mean 2.7 and 2.9 versus 1.7 and 17) and believed that antibiotics speed recovery (mean 3.7 versus 2.0). However, there was little difference relating to the necessity to see a doctor after some time period. Conclusion - Patients appeared to differ from doctors in views on respiratory tract symptoms. The results stress the importance of exploring patients' views when being confronted by patients suffering from respiratory tract symptoms.