Characteristic | Rapid recovery, 6 days (n = 2763, 52.0%) | Intermediate recovery, 10 days (n = 1538, 28.9%) | Slow progressive improvement, 27 days (n = 663, 12.5%) | Slow improvement with initial high symptom burden, 27 days (n = 350, 6.6%) | P-value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Age, years, mean (SD) | 25.3 (24.4) | 36.4 (22.8) | 39.6 (24.2) | 39.3 (22.7) | <0.001 |
Sex, female, n (%)b | 1361 (54.3) | 820 (60.9) | 349 (60.1) | 212 (67.5) | <0.001 |
Baseline severity score, mean (SD) | 1.5 (0.6) | 1.8 (0.7) | 1.5 (0.6) | 1.8 (0.6) | <0.001 |
Prior duration illness, days, mean (SD) | 8.2 (7.0) | 9.1 (7.2) | 10.5 (7.3) | 8.7 (5.9) | 0.025 |
Fever at baseline, n (%)b | 1269 (46.2) | 745 (48.7) | 293 (44.6) | 152 (43.7) | 0.163 |
Any lung disease, n (%)b | 263 (14.2) | 218 (17.1) | 115 (21.6) | 63 (21.1) | <0.001 |
Treatment group, n (%) | 0.021 | ||||
No antibiotics | 1321 (47.8) | 683 (44.4) | 329 (49.6) | 164 (46.9) | |
Immediate | 1031 (37.3) | 647 (42.1) | 260 (39.2) | 136 (38.9) | |
Delayed | 411 (14.9) | 208 (13.5) | 74 (11.2) | 50 (14.3) |
↵a P-value <0.05 indicates statistically significant difference across groups. Data on sex and mean prior duration of illness were based on four studies.26,28,29,31
↵b Out of the 5314 participants, there were data available on fever at baseline for 5282 participants, data for any lung disease for 3957 participants, and data for sex for 4747 participants.
SD = standard deviation.