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. 2018 Dec 12;18(1):647.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-018-3568-9.

"With fever it's the real flu I would say": laypersons' perception of common cold and influenza and their differences - a qualitative study in Austria, Belgium and Croatia

Elisabeth Anne-Sophie Mayrhuber  1 , Wim Peersman  2   3 , Nina van de Kraats  3 , Goranka Petricek  4   5 , Asja Ćosić Diviak  5 , Silvia Wojczewski  6 , Kathryn Hoffmann  7
Affiliations

"With fever it's the real flu I would say": laypersons' perception of common cold and influenza and their differences - a qualitative study in Austria, Belgium and Croatia

Elisabeth Anne-Sophie Mayrhuber et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background: There is little research on laypersons' perceptions regarding common cold and influenza, their symptomatic distinction and considerations of risk. This study investigates understanding of pathogenesis across three European countries and provides a knowledge base from which adequate prevention recommendations and treatment advice can be derived.

Methods: This is a qualitative research study. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 85 participants from three European countries (Austria n = 31, Belgium n = 30, Croatia n = 24) about their experiences, perceptions and risk considerations regarding the common cold and influenza. We performed a qualitative thematic content analysis.

Results: Three main themes were identified: common cold as harmless with individualistic symptoms; influenza as mainly distinguishable by fever, confinement to bed and severity of symptoms, but description about onset and duration are diverse; and views on pathogenesis contain references to disease causing agents and circumstances. Overall we found that risk perception is based largely on personal experience and risk is assumed moderate for both diseases.

Conclusions: Study participants possessed a fairly good understanding of symptoms, differences and pathogenesis of common cold and influenza; but explanations integrated misconceptions, such as misinterpretation of fever, disease continuums, diverse onset ideas etc. Perceptions were largely based on lived experiences and interventions for prevention and treatment should be led by health care workers and focus on these issues. Basic consultations, awareness raising activities and other knowledge disseminations strategies should include aspects of communicableness and the self-limiting nature of both diseases. An informed understanding of both infectious diseases is crucial and may also increase influenza vaccination coverage in the three respective countries effectively.

Keywords: Austria; Belgium; Common cold; Croatia; Differences; Influenza; Laypersons.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Our study has been performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and has been approved by all relevant ethics committees:

  1. Medical University of Vienna (EK 1786/2013)

  2. Ghent University Hospital (EC/2016/0185 and EC/2016/0283)

  3. Research Ethics Committee of the “Zagreb-Centar”, Health Center (251–510–03-20-16-08)

For our research all participants were informed about the study comprehensively before they had to subscribe an informed consent if they were willing to participate.

Consent for publication

Not applicable. In our research and manuscript there are no individual details, images, or videos which could be related to an individual person.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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