Table 1.

Areas covered in the CRF and the patient symptom diary

CRF question areas	Patient Diary question areas
Location of the consultation	Main reasons for consulting
14 Symptoms and their reported severity at presentation	Daily rating of 13 symptoms
Co-morbidity	Questions about the present illness
Temperature	Smoking history
Physical examinations performed and findings	Social demographic factors (e.g. educational qualifications, job, numbers of persons living in the house)
Investigations ordered (e.g. blood tests and × rays)	Use of health care facilities - visited and contacted (e.g. GP, Nurse, pharmacist)
Referral	Recovery
Treatment details including antibiotics and over the counter medications	Expectations about treatment
Follow up arrangements	Hospital admission
Advice about work	Weekly questions ask about medication use, work attendance, brief quality of life questions (EQ-5D).
Patient expectations	Beliefs about antibiotics.
Perceptions of patient satisfaction