Table 2.
Symptoms at initial call to emergency medical services.
| Symptom present/symptom asked about | P-value | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All patients N = 209 |
Age < 18 years N = 38 |
Age ≥ 18 years N = 171 |
Present of asked aboutA | Present of all patientsB | |
| Altered mental state | 121/142 | 16/30 | 105/112 | < 0.01 | 0.04 |
| Fever | 120/133 | 35/37 | 85/96 | 0.51 | < 0.01 |
| Fatigue | 110/115 | 27/30 | 83/85 | 0.11 | 0.01 |
| Headache | 70/74 | 8/11 | 62/63 | 0.01 | 0.09 |
| Vomiting | 53/64 | 13/18 | 40/46 | 0.27 | 0.21 |
| Ear pain | 40/40 | 5/5 | 35/35 | 1.00 | 0.37 |
| Dyspnea | 34/66 | 5/12 | 29/54 | 0.53 | 0.81 |
| Common cold | 27/35 | 8/12 | 19/23 | 0.40 | 0.11 |
| Leg pain | 26/31 | 1/2 | 25/29 | 0.30 | 0.05 |
| Tremors and/or seizures | 24/25 | 4/4 | 20/21 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Back pain | 21/21 | 1/1 | 20/20 | 1.00 | 0.13 |
| Diarrhea | 18/24 | 5/9 | 13/15 | 0.15 | 0.33 |
| Stiffness of the neck | 18/36 | 7/12 | 11/22 | 0.73 | 0.02 |
| Coughing | 13/26 | 1/4 | 12/22 | 0.59 | 0.47 |
| Palsy | 12/37 | 0/0 | 12/37 | 1.00 | 0.13 |
| Abdominal pain | 8/12 | 3/5 | 5/7 | 0.07 | 0.16 |
| Sore throat | 8/18 | 2/5 | 6/13 | 1.00 | 0.64 |
| Sparse urination | 8/23 | 3/15 | 5/8 | 0.07 | 0.16 |
| Rash and/or petechiae | 7/45 | 6/2 | 1/23 | 0.05 | < 0.01 |
| Photophobia | 4/4 | 2/2 | 2/2 | 1.00 | 0.15 |
| Chest pain | 4/11 | 0/0 | 4/11 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
List of symptoms mentioned in 209 initial phone calls to emergency medical services. Eighty-eight calls were to the emergency call center, while 121 calls were to the medical helpline. For any symptom, it was registered in how many calls the symptom was present and in how many calls the symptom was asked about and/or mentioned. Because all symptoms were not always asked about, P-values were calculated for both patients with symptoms present of patients asked about symptoms and of all patients.
AP values for comparisons between children and adults for the ratio of patients reporting a symptom of the patients asked about the symptom.
BP values for comparisons between children and adults for the ratio of patients reporting a symptom of all patients whether they were asked about the symptom or not.