Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of 2296 children presenting to primary care with respiratory tract infection between July 2011 and May 2013 (Children with and without post-consultation symptom diary data are compared.)
| Children with diary data n = 1408 |
Children without diary data n = 888 |
P Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Child baseline characteristics | |||
| Male gender, n (%) | 742 (52.7) | 446 (50.2) | 0.248a |
| Mean age, year | 4.1 | 4.2 | 0.772b |
| Ethnicity, White, n (%) | 1251 (89.2) | 767 (86.6) | 0.061a |
| Chronic illness, n (%) | 271 (19.3) | 167 (18.8) | 0.803a |
| Current asthma, n (%) | 147 (10.4) | 86 (9.7) | 0.559a |
| Previous asthma, n (%) | 67 (4.8) | 34 (3.8) | 0.290a |
| Diabetes, n (%) | 2 (0.1) | 1 (0.1) | 0.849a |
| Pre-consultation illness duration, mean days | 7.7 | 7.4 | 0.176b |
| Global illness severity score clinician (range 0–10), mean | 2.9 | 2.9 | 0.861b |
| Global illness severity score carer (range 0–10), mean | 5.3 | 5.3 | 0.460b |
| Family/background data | |||
| Mother’s mean age, year | 35.0 | 32.4 | <0.001b |
| Number of children in home (mean) | 1.9 | 2.1 | <0.001b |
| Only child, n (%) | 501 (35.7) | 289 (32.8) | 0.150a |
| Breastfed at 3 months, n (%) | 676 (51.3) | 325 (40.5) | <0.001a |
| Mother smoker, n (%) | 217 (15.6) | 249 (28.9) | <0.001a |
| Index of multiple deprivation, mean | 20.7 | 24.8 | <0.001b |
| Living in 20% most deprived areas, n (%) | 223 (15.9) | 238 (27.1) | <0.001a |
| Clinical management | |||
| Antibiotics prescribed, n (%) | 568 (40.3) | 366 (41.2) | 0.678a |
| Immediate, n (%) | 446 (31.7) | 299 (33.7) | 0.457a |
| Delayed, n (%) | 122 (8.7) | 67 (7.6) | |
aPearson’s chi-square test.
bUnpaired t-test.