1. Gender differences in self-care for common colds by primary care patients: a European multicenter survey on the prevalence and patterns of practices (the COCO study)
- Author
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Hoffman, R.D., Thielmann, A., Buczkowski, K., Edirne, Tamer, Hoffmann, K., Koskela, T., Lingner, H., Mevsim, V., Tekiner, S., Zielinski, A., Hoffman Cicurel, N., Petrazzuoli, F., Thulesius, H., Gerasimovska Kitanovska, B., Weltermann, B., and for the European General Practice Research Network Working Group on Self-Care
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Medizin ,050109 social psychology ,Primary care ,Gender Studies ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,self care ,Medicine ,Coco ,0501 psychology and cognitive sciences ,home remedy ,gendered norm ,business.industry ,05 social sciences ,Health behaviour ,Common cold ,medicine.disease ,common cold ,Man Cold ,050903 gender studies ,Family medicine ,Multicenter survey ,Self care ,0509 other social sciences ,business ,Social Sciences (miscellaneous) - Abstract
Although generally harmless, the common cold disturbs the lives of billions yearly. It is frequently treated by self-care, yet little is known about the effect gender may have on self-care. Our study set out to discover whether self-care for common colds differs by gender. We also wanted to test the ‘Man cold’ belief: that men ‘break down’ when they have a cold and suffer more than women when they are sick. We distributed questionnaires asking for a selection of self-care practices in eight categories to 3,240 consecutive patients in 14 Eurasian countries at 27 primary care sites. Of 2,654 patients included, 99% reported engaging in self-care for common colds. Discomfort was reported more frequently by women (74.7% vs. 66.5%, p
- Published
- 2020
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