Why do patients seek family physicians' services for cold symptoms?

OBJECTIVE To examine the frequency of presentation to family physicians' of fices for cold symptoms, the reasons for presentation, and the duration of symptoms before presentation. DESIGN Prospective cross-sectional survey. PARTICIPANTS One hundred consecutive patient encounters in each of 15 famil y practices from January 27 to February 3, 1994, involving both academic an d non-academic family physicians in the London region. Data were collected prospectively using a checklist attached to each chart. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Proportion of patients presenting with cold symptoms, reasons for presentation, number of days patients had had symptoms, billin g code. RESULTS A total of 1421 checklists were analyzed, 822 from academic practic es and 599 from community practices. Proportion of presentations for cold s ymptoms was 14.8%, but visits coded as common cold represented 5.7%. Median number of days patients waited before presentation was 7.0; older patients tended to wait longer. Many patients were worried about developing complic ations (51.0%) or were fed up with their symptoms (31.9%). Most patients we re between the ages of 20 and 64 (44.6%), and 57.6% of all patients had dev eloped complications requiring treatment. CONCLUSIONS The proportion of visits coded as common cold was lower than On tario averages. Most patients had complications rather than simple colds an d had managed their symptoms on their own for a fairly long time.