Would GPs advise patients with respiratory tract infections to refrain from exercise, stay indoors or stay in bed? Survey of GPs in Poland and Norway

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of respondents in Poland and Norway.

Variable	GPs in Poland	GPs in Norway	P-value
Mean age, years	46	44	0.06
Women, %	66	45	< 0.001
Specialist in general practice, %	78	52	< 0.001
Time worked in general practice, years	12	12	0.65
Time worked as a physician, years	20	15	< 0.001
Average number of patients seen per hour	7.5	3.5	< 0.001

Table 2. Proportions of GPs that would recommend patients to stay in bed, stay indoors or refrain from exercise.

	Bed rest			Staying indoors			No exercise
Disease	Poland n = 216	Norway n = 171	Adjusted relative risks^a (95% CI)	Poland n = 216	Norway n = 171	Adjusted relative risks^a (95% CI)	Poland n = 216	Norway n = 171	Adjusted relative risks^a (95% CI)
Female, age 30, pneumonia	84%	43%	2.3 (1.9–2.9)	98%	72%	1.4 (1.2–1.5)	88%	90%	1.0 (0.9–1.1)
Male, age 50, sinusitis	49%	10%	5.4 (3.5–8.4)	92%	26%	3.7 (2.8–4.8)	74%	68%	1.1 (0.9–1.2)
Female, age 45, common cold	36%	1%	72 (10–505)	87%	9%	10.6 (6.3–17.7)	69%	40%	1.8 (1.4–2.2)
Male, age 55, exacerbation of COPD	50%	18%	3.2 (2.2–4.8)	92%	39%	2.5 (2.0–3.1)	88%	70%	1.3 (1.1–1.4)

^aRelative risks adjusted for sex, speciality, number of years worked as a physician, and average number of patients seen per hour, using multivariate log-Poisson regression with robust standard errors.

Figure 1. Pooled distribution of proposed duration of bed rest, staying indoors and/or refraining from exercise. Each participant (n = 387) was asked for a recommendation regarding each type of restriction in four different cases of acute respiratory tract infections, i.e. 3 × 4 × 387 = 4644 recommendations. A duration was proposed in 57% (n = 1996) of these cases.

Table 3. Mean proposed duration (days) of bed rest, staying indoors and refraining from exercise among GPs in Poland and Norway.^a

	Bed rest			Staying indoors			No exercise
Disease	Poland	Norway	Adjusted difference^b (95% CI)	Poland	Norway	Adjusted difference^b (95% CI)	Poland	Norway	Adjusted difference^b (95% CI)
Female, age 30, pneumonia	5.4	2.8	2.6 (2.0–3.2)	8.1	3.2	4.8 (4.1–5.5)	9.2	7.1	2.0 (0.9–3.1)
Male, age 50, sinusitis	5.2	3.1	3.4 (1.8–5.0)	6.6	2.8	3.5 (2.9–4.2)	7.3	5.2	2.1 (1.2–3.1)
Female, age 45, common cold	4.2	3.0	2.0 (0.6–3.3)	5.1	2.6	2.8 (1.9–3.7)	5.7	4.4	1.2 (0.3–2.1)
Male, age 55, exacerbation of COPD	5.3	3.9	1.4 (0.5–2.4)	6.7	4.1	2.5 (1.8–3.2)	7.9	6.9	0.7 (–0.7–2.1)

^aGPs who would not recommend bed rest, staying indoors or refraining from exercise were excluded from these analyses.

^bDifferences in proposed durations adjusted for sex, speciality, number of years worked as a physician, and average number of patients seen per hour, using ordinary least-squares regression with robust variances.