Clinical and psychosocial predictors of illness duration from randomised controlled trial of prescribing strategies for sore throat

Sore throat is one of the commonest reasons for visiting general practitioners yet little is known about what factors are important in its natural course. This is important since people with prolonged illness after the consultation-the 36% with illness lasting more than five days after seeing the doctor (the median)-are much more likely to reattend. 1 Providing patients with information about duration of illness can reduce expectation and reattendance. 2 We studied factors that affect duration of sore throat and assessed whether satisfaction with the consultation independently predicts duration of illness. 3