ABSTRACT
This is the commonest condition that any GP has to deal with. On average, adults get four to six colds per year, while children get six to eight of them. Although most people do not visit their GP every time they get a cold, the small proportion who do generate a lot of work for doctors. Dr John Fry found an incidence of about 500 visits/1000 patients/year (Fry, 1974), which means that a GP may see 10 patients with colds per week, or two per day. Studies have shown that people who visit their doctor with a cold are less likely to have taken an over-the-counter medication (despite all the TV adverts for these products), are more likely to have been sick for 3 or more days, to live in a large household, to be older, to be unhappy or to need a sick note.
