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Table 1 Brief description of the included studies

From: Studies of the symptom dyspnoea: A systematic review

Studies

Recruitment duration [month]

Region

Setting

Age distribution of study sample

Female (%)

Data assessment

Inclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria

Answered research questions

Burri, 2012

---

Germany + Switzerland

29 primary care physicians

Median age: 72 years

53.9

prospective

- all patients presented with dyspnoea as their primary symptom

- < 18 years

2b + 3c

- obvious traumatic cause of dyspnoea

- Dyspnoea had to be of new onset or clearly worsening if preexisting

- severe renal disease [defined by a serum

creatinine level of more than 250 μmol /L−1 (2.8 mg/dL−1)

- sepsis

Charles, 2005 (BEACH Program)

72

Australien

6021 general practitioners

<5 years: 3.0 %

53.2

retrospective

- all documented patients with shortness of breath

---

1a + 2b

5–14 years: 3.3 %

15–24 years: 4.6 %

25–44 years:10.8 %

45–64 years: 21.2 %

65–74 years: 21.7 %

75+ years: 35.3 %

Frese, 2011 (SESAM Study)

12

Germany

270 general practitioners

Mean age: 51.2 years, SD +/−20.86

56.9

prospective

- all patients with a direct (face to face) GP contact; independent from consultation reason

none

1a + 2b

Median age: 55 years

Nielsen, 2001

11.5

Denmark

74 general practitioners

Mean age: 63.0 years

47.7

prospective

- all patients with dyspnoea of at least 2 weeks duration

- patients with dyspnoea of at least less 2 weeks duration

2b + 3c

Nielsen, 2003

24

Denmark

74 general practitioners

Median age: 65.0 years

49.0

prospective

- all patients with dyspnoea of at least 2 weeks duration

- patients with dyspnoea of at least less 2 weeks duration

2b

Okkes, 2002

12–120 (mean: 2.4 years)

Netherlands

54 family physicians

---

56.5

prospective

- all patients with a direct (face to face) GP contact; independent from consultation reason

none

1a + 2b

Frese, 2011 (Transition Projectd)

  1. aFirst research question: Prevalence of the consulting reason dyspnoea at general practice
  2. bSecond research question: Aetiology of the consulting reason dyspnoea at general practice
  3. cThird research question: Prognosis of the consulting reason dyspnoea at general practice
  4. dBoth studies from Frese and Okkes published data from the Transitions Project persist. Due to the more detailed data presentation, we extracted the data from the article from Frese et al