Table 2.
Effectiveness of advice strategies for analgesia on symptom control in patients with acute respiratory tract infections. Figures are crude mean symptom severity scores two to four days after seeing doctor
| Paracetamol crude mean (SD) | Ibuprofen | Paracetamol and ibuprofen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crude mean (SD) | Adjusted* difference (95% CI), P value | Crude mean (SD) | Adjusted difference (95% CI), P value | |||
| Whole cohort (n=743) | 1.67 (0.82) | 1.71 (0.96) | 0.04 (−0.11 to 0.19), 0.59 | 1.78 (0.94) | 0.11 (−0.04 to 0.26), 0.14 | |
| LRTI (n=113) | 2.14 (0.99) | 1.70 (0.94) | −0.40 (−0.78 to −0.01), 0.04 | 1.74 (0.84) | −0.47 (−0.84 to −0.10), 0.01 | |
| Non-LRTI (n=630) | 1.60 (0.77) | 1.73 (0.97) | 0.11 (−0.05 to 0.27), 0.19 | 1.77 (0.96) | 0.20 (0.03 to 0.36), 0.03 | |
| Age ≤16 (n=200) | 1.74 (0.80) | 1.20 (0.79) | −0.47 (−0.76 to −0.18), <0.01 | 1.61 (0.90) | −0.04 (−0.31 to 0.23), 0.77 | |
| Age ≥17 (n=543) | 1.65 (0.83) | 1.88 (0.96) | 0.20 (0.03 to 0.38), 0.02 | 1.85 (0.95) | 0.16 (−0.02 to 0.34), 0.08 | |
*Adjusted for baseline symptom severity, dosing, steam, antibiotic prescribing, and smoking (as smoking significantly predicted symptom severity). Outcome is severity of symptoms so lower symptom severity (or negative change) is better. Denominators vary because of missing data.