Characteristics of patients in included studies
| Characteristic | Data set; no. (%) of patients or mean ± SD* | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbye et al. (21) n = 402 | Hopstaken et al. (22) n = 243 | Flanders et al. (28) n = 168 | Graffelman et al. (29) n = 129 | Holm et al. (30) n = 364 | Rainer et al. (7) n = 561 | Steurer et al. (8) n = 621 | van Vugt et al. (9) n = 2820 | |
| Primary care setting | OHD | GP | ED/AC | GP | GP | ED | GP, ED | GP |
| Pneumonia | 20 (5) | 32 (13) | 20 (12) | 26 (20) | 48 (13) | 241 (43) | 127 (21) | 140 (5) |
| Age, yr | 33 (14) | 52 (16) | 40 (16) | 50 (14) | 50 (16) | 53 (22) | 47 (16) | 50 (17) |
| Sex, male | 166 (41) | 115 (47) | 69 (41) | 61 (47) | 179 (49) | 297 (53) | 308 (50)§ | 1128 (40) |
| Duration illness, d | 10 (14) | Categorized | 7 (5) | 9 (6) | NA | 17 (9) | 7 (10) | 10 (10) |
| Smoker (current) | 225 (56) | 81 (33) | 19 (11) | 46 (36) | 165 (45) | 94 (17) | 181 (29) | 777 (28) |
| Symptoms | ||||||||
| Cough | 363 (91) | 223 (92) | 168 (100) | 127 (98) | 355 (98) | 493 (88) | 602 (97) | 2816 (100) |
| Sputum production | 352 (88) | 194 (80) | 93 (55) | 102 (79) | 295 (81) | 431 (77) | 302 (49) | 2239 (79) |
| Dyspnea | 277 (69) | 188 (77) | 85 (51) | 98 (76) | 263 (72) | 312 (56) | 223 (36) | 1594 (57) |
| Coryza | 323 (80) | 93 (38) | 115 (69) | 76 (59) | NA | 282 (50) | NA | 2012 (71) |
| Sore throat | 290 (72) | 95 (39) | 109 (65) | 50 (39) | NA | 283 (50) | NA | NA |
| Chest pain | 214 (53) | 145 (60) | 67 (40) | 29 (23) | 234 (64) | 225 (40) | 179 (29) | 1304 (46) |
| Diarrhea | NA | 19 (8) | 24 (14) | 31 (24) | NA | 53 (9) | NA | 199 (7) |
| Fever† | 146 (37) | 110 (45) | 102 (61) | 109 (84) | 145 (40) | 470 (84) | 402 (65) | 997 (35) |
| Signs | ||||||||
| New chest sign‡ | 113 (28) | 206 (83) | 56 (33) | 144 (99) | 129 (35) | NA | 262 (42) | 1105 (39) |
| Heart rate, beats/min | 79 ± 13 | NA | 85 ± 19 | 82 ± 11 | 81 ± 15 | 98 ± 18 | NA | 77 ± 12 |
| Respiratory rate, breaths/min | NA | Categorized | 18 (4) | 21 (4) | 19 (4) | 19 (3) | 17 (6) | 17 (4) |
| Temperature, °C | 37.3 (0.7) | 37.5 (0.8) | 37.3 (0.8) | 37.9 (0.7) | 37.4 (0.6) | 37.8 (1.1) | 37.4 (1) | 36.7 (0.6) |
| Additional test | ||||||||
| CRP, mg/L, median (IQR) | 5 (5–27) | 23 (8–82) | 15 (0–35) | 50 (17–102) | 14 (10–35) | 96 (20–258) | 36 (15–89) | 7 (3–21) |
Note: AC = ambulatory clinic, CRP = C-reactive protein, ED = emergency department, GP = general practice, IQR = interquartile range, OHD = out-of-hours department, NA = data not available, SD = standard deviation.
↵* Unless stated otherwise.
↵† Temperature ≥ 38°C; either self-reported by patient or measured by physician during consultation.
↵‡ Defined as either wheezing, rhonchi, crackles, diminished vesicular breathing, pleural rub or dullness present at auscultation.
↵§ Data from original publication.