Respiratory illness in children: what makes parents decide to consult?

Parents of a stratified random sample of 234 children from 21 training practices in north east England were interviewed at home. All these children had been reported in a postal questionnaire as having had a cough between six and 10 weeks before the interview. Interviews covered social characteristics of the family, the severity of the child's cough and the child's previous respiratory history. These data were analysed using the statistical technique of logistic regression. This produced a good model of consulting behaviour. The model showed that a doctor was likely to be consulted if the child had severe symptoms, or if the cough affected the child's behaviour. This suggests that most parents deciding whether to consult the doctor make careful decisions based on what they see as objective criteria. No social characteristic had a significant influence on the decision to consult the doctor over and above the influence of the characteristics and effect of the cough itself.