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The purpose of the study was to evaluate an Ontario Ministry of Health (MOH) cold/flu self-care public education campaign to reduce unnecessary patient visits to doctors. The MOH campaign consisted of an information booklet delivered to every household in an Ontario city, newspaper ads and radio spots. The program ran during January-March 1994. The evaluation consisted of: (1) 2x2 telephone survey in London (experimental area) and Windsor (comparison area), before and during the campaign; and (2) a telephone survey of London family practitioners during the campaign. In addition, data on the incidence of cold/flu visits to three hospital emergency departments and a sample of family physicians' offices were gathered. The data suggest that program rationale may have been questionable because the majority of the surveyed public were knowledgeable and self-reported appropriate doctor visits for cold/flu. Campaign evaluation showed limited impact. Message penetration was low; only one-third of London residents knew of the campaign or read the booklet. Only two of 10 questions showed increases in knowledge in London and no changes were found for beliefs, attitudes, acquisition of new health practices or self-reported visits to the doctor. The physician survey, emergency room and family physician office visit data were consistent with the public survey findings.

Objective: To estimate the effect of the Ontario Ministry of Health's pilot public-education campaign launched in London, Ont., on Jan. 15, 1994, to reduce the number of visits to physicians' offices because of cold and flu symptoms., Design: Before-after comparison of claims to the Ontario Health Insurance Plan., Outcome Measures: Physician billings for visits because of cold and flu symptoms and total billings for all types of visits during the 2 months before and after the start of the campaign, and during the same two periods in the previous year, in London and in the rest of Ontario., Results: By the time the campaign was started, much of the cold and flu season was already over for that winter. Still, the decrease in billings for visits because of cold and flu symptoms in the 2 months after the campaign was introduced was 6% greater in London than in the rest of Ontario. There was virtually no difference in total billings between London and the rest of the province during the same period., Conclusion: The modest relative reduction in physician billings for visits because of cold or flu symptoms in London following the introduction of the public-education campaign may have been due to the intervention as well as to other factors.