Patients’ self-assessment and expectations, clinical assessment by the GPs and GAS-results in throat swabs
sore throat, throat, fever
SORE THROAT
Eighty eight percent of patients complained of severe discomfort, 87% desired a relief of discomfort (symptomatic treatment) with the highest rate in the GL-RADT-group. However, only 32% of all patients intended to receive an antibiotic, without differences between study arms.Seventy three percent of all patients had a sore throat for 1 to 3 days before seeing the GP. The mean duration of sore throat until consultation was 3 days without relevant differences between groups.The GPs documented a severe sore throat in 61% of patients, a severe general impairment in 51% of patients, and fever in 34%. In the GL-RADT-group slightly more patients were severely impaired, had a severe sore throat, and fever compared to the other study groups. Centor or McIsaac scores of ≥ 3 were documented in the GL-RADT in 55%, and in the GL-group in 35% of patients (In the study throat swabs the prevalence of GAS (15%) was similar in all three groups (Table Patient self-assessment and expectation, clinical assessment by the GPs and GAS-results in study throat swabsFigures are numbers (percentages), unless stated otherwise. SD standard deviation, *Chi