Table 2. Clinicians’ assessment, management and perceptions on antibiotic prescription for patients (n=455).

Clinicians’ assessment, management and perceptions	Mean±s.d./n(%)
Symptom severity scores % rated by clinicians	11.1±5.53
Moderate or severe symptoms (%)
Cough	219 (48.1%)
Sputum	126 (27.7%)
Blocked/running nose	82 (18.0%)
Short of breath	9 (2.0%)
Wheeze	6 (1.3%)
Fever	13 (2.9%)
Muscle aching	24 (5.3%)
Headache	37 (8.1%)
Disturbed sleep	40 (8.8%)
General unwell	33 (7.3)
Patients’ oral temperature (⩾37.2 °C)	84 (18.5%)
Comorbidities of patients (%)
COPD	16 (3.5%)
Asthma	39 (8.6%)
Other lung diseases	15 (3.3%)
Heart diseases	49 (10.7%)
Diabetes	35 (7.7%)
Antibiotic treatment (%)	31 (6.8%)
Amoxicillin	19 (4.2%)
Clinicians’ perception on antibiotics (Agree or strongly agree %)
Patients want me to prescribe antibiotics	46 (10.2%)
Patients are satisfied with the consultation	428 (94.0%)
Antibiotics can help quick recovery	39 (8.6%)

Abbreviation: COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Severity scores were calculated for patients with a minimum of 85% of their symptoms recorded. The categories for clinicians to rate the severity of each symptom as ‘None’, ‘Minimal’, ‘mild’, ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’ were scored 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The symptom severity score was scaled to range between 0 and 100 as a percentage of maximum symptom severity. Clinicians' perceptions on antibiotics were categorised as strongly disagree, disagree, moderate, agree and strongly agree, respectively.