Table 4.

Health care seeking and perceived severity of illness during the Campylobacter outbreak in Askøy, by cases with severe or non-severe gastroenteritis

		All		Non-severe		Severe		x2
		n	%	n	%	n	%	pa
Total		749	100	572	76.4*	177	23.6*
Contacted doctor								< 0.01
	Yes	203	27.1	117	20.5	86	48.6
	No	539	72.0	450	78.7	89	50.3
	Uncertain	5	0.7	3	0.5	2	1.1
	Missing	2	0.3	2	0.3	0	0.0
Hospitalized								0.01
	Yes	33	4.4	16	2.8	17	9.6
	No	715	95.5	555	97.0	160	90.4
	Missing	1	0.1	1	0.2	0	0.0
Perceived severityb								< 0.01
	1 well	8	1.1	6	1.0	2	1.1
	2	39	5.2	37	6.5	2	1.1
	3	125	16.7	118	20.6	7	4.0
	4	152	20.3	133	23.3	19	10.7
	5	157	21.0	133	23.3	24	13.6
	6	160	21.4	99	17.3	61	34.5
	7	83	11.1	37	6.5	46	26.0
	8	21	2.8	8	1.4	13	7.3
	9 life threatening	4	0.5	1	0.2	3	1.7

Distribution within characteristics is given by column unless stated by *

*Distribution by row

^ap values from Pearson’s x²-test of association calculated from cross tables between cases with non-severe and severe gastroenteritis

^bSelf-reported perceived severity at worst time point of illness. Scale from 1 (well) to 9 (life threatening)