Family Practitioners’ Advice about Taking Time Off Work for Lower Respiratory Tract Infections: A Prospective Study in Twelve European Primary Care Networks

Maciek Godycki-Cwirko, Marek Nocun, Christopher C Butler, Paul Little, Theo Verheij, Kerenza Hood, Nils Fleten, Anna Kowalczyk and Hasse Melbye

PLOS ONE, 2016, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Background: Acute cough and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are one of the most important causes of lost working hours. Aim: to explore variation and predictors in family practitioners (FPs) advice to patients with LRTIs about taking time off work in different European countries. Methods: Prospective observational study in primary care networks in 12 countries, with multilevel mixed-effects binomial logistic regression. Results: 324 FPs recruited 1616 employed adults who presented to primary care with LRTIs. The proportion of patients advised to take time off work varied from 7.6% in the Netherlands to 89.2% in Slovakia, and of these, 88.2% overall were advised to stay off work for seven days or less. None of Finnish or Dutch patients were advised to take more than 7 days off, in contrast to 35.5% of Polish and 27.0% of Slovak patients. The strongest predictors of FPs’ advice about time off work were: patient symptoms interfering with normal activities (OR 4.43; P

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0164779

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164779

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