Symptoms of respiratory tract infection and associated care-seeking in subjects with and without obstructive lung disease; The Tromsø Study: Tromsø 6

Table 5 Frequency of consulting a doctor and taking antibiotics in 798 subjects reporting symptoms of respiratory tract infection the previous week in the Tromsø 6 survey

		Consulting a GP		Taking antibiotics
	n	n	%	n	%
All	798	41	5.1	58	7.4
Gender
Male	350	19	5.4	22	6.3
Female	448	22	4.9	36	8.0
Age
<45 years	141	4	2.8	8	5.9
55-64 years	354	20	5.6	24	6.8
65-74 years	230	14	6.1	20	8.7
≥ 75 Years	73	3	4.1	6	8.2
Smoking
Current	214	12	5.6	12	5.6
Previous	334	19	5.7	27	8.1
Never	240	10	4.2	18	7.5
Season
Winter	423	17	4.0	23	5.4^£
Summer	363	24	6.4	35	9.4
Self-rated health
Good/exellent	449	17	3.8^&	29	6.6
Neither good nor bad	288	19	6.6	22	7.7
Bad/very bad	53	5	9.4	7	13.5
Self-reported disease
Asthma or COPD Yes	119	9	7.6	16	13.7 ^#
No	679	32	4.7	42	6.3
Cardiovascular disease Yes	134	11	8.2	14	10.5
No	664	30	4.5	44	6.7
Hypertension Yes	269	14	5.2	17	6.4
No	529	27	5.1	41	7.9
Days since the symptoms started
≤ 2 weeks	593	13	2.2	25	4.3
>2 weeks	205	28	13.7^μ	33	16.6^μ
Lung function (n = 794)
GOLD 1 spirometry	79	5	6.3	6	7.6
GOLD 2–4 spirometry	134	5	3.7	12	9.1
FEV1/FVC ≥ 0.7	567	31	5.5	40	7.1
Self-reported asthma or COPD and lung function combined
No asthma or COPD reported, FEV1/FVC ≥ 0.7	511	27	5.3	32	6.3
Asthma or COPD reported, FEV1/FVC ≥ 0.7	56	4	7.1	8	14.3
Asthma or COPD reported, FEV1/FVC < 0.7	61	5	8.2	8	13.1
No asthma or COPD reported, but GOLD 1 spirometry	68	3	4.4	4	5.9
No Asthma or COPD reported, but GOLD 2–4 spirometry	84	2	2.4	6	7.1

^£The difference between the two groups is statistically significant, p = 0.03.
^& The variation between the three groups is statistically significant (chi-square linear trend), p = 0.03.
^# The difference between the two groups is statistically significant, p = 0.005.
^μ The difference between the two groups is statistically significant, p < 0.001.

ISSN: 1471-2466