gms | German Medical Science

Introduction – Objective: Usual medical papers refer to treatments proposed by doctors to patients to relieve their sore throat. This paper aims at searching what sufferers from sore throat do before medical consultation.

Material – Method: Every patient complaining of sore throat who visited the outpatient ward of our ENT department through the last two years was personally asked by an ENT doctor what he / she had already done to relieve his / her symptom before visiting us. This paper includes 312 individuals divided in two groups: the first group includes those born till 1996; the second one those born after 1997. The criterion of this division was that in the first group the individuals decided what they did and answered our questions by themselves, whereas in the second group the parents decided and answered on behalf of their children.

Results: Amongst the 1st group (adults) 59.84% had already used a product of pharmaceutical industry, 42.12% a product retrieved from nature, 21.65% nothing and 0.39% alternative medication before consulting us. Amongst the 2nd group (children) 72.41% had used a product of pharmaceutical industry, 17.24% a natural product and 27.58% nothing. The most commonly used pharmaceutical product was some kind of analgesic (27.16% of adults, 60.34% of children). The most commonly used natural products were warm beverages prepared from plants collected by themselves (33.46% of adults, 17.24% of children).

Conclusion: More than half of sufferers from sore throat will have used some kind of industrial product before consulting a doctor. The parents use such products more commonly for their children, than for themselves. The use of antibiotics was limited: 3.54% of adults, 1.72% of children.

Der Erstautor gibt keinen Interessenkonflikt an.