Table 2.

The number, frequency duration, severity of presenting symptoms of patients at initial assessment by the home based care service

Symptom on first presentation	Number and Percentage of patients with symptoma		Duration of symptoms prior to presentation in daysa			Persistence of symptom after treatment dispensed at time of initial assessment in daysb			Frequency of recurring symptom per yearb
	number	%	median	75 percentile	90 percentile	median	75 percentile	95 percentile	median	75 percentile	95 percentile
Headache	267	74				14	29	189	1.9	3.2	7.7
Fever	253	70	4	14	52	14	35	117	1.7	4.0	9.4
Chest pain	245	68				14	42	167	2.2	4.7	8.9
Shortness of breath	241	67
Cough	239	66	4	15	36	19	45	150	2.6	4.1	9.1
SOB walking	221	61
Stomach pains	215	60
Poor appetite	205	57				12	21	92	0.9	3.4	7.9
Lower limb pain	163	45				28	68	199	1.6	3.2	7.1
Nausea or vomiting	143	40
Diarrhoea	140	39	3	12	52	7	14	70	0.0	3.4	9.4
Problem swallowing	121	34
Skin problems	122	34
SOB doing nothing	107	30
Thrush	89	29				8	27	195
Previous shingles	101	28
Other pain	97	27
Itchy rash	93	26				14	50	298	0.0	1.3	4.5
Genital ulcers	46	13
Urethral discharge	40	11
Mouth ulcers	37	10

Note ^a calculated from initial assessment data

^b calculated using follow up data