Subject characteristics
During the study period, 26,752 patients were identified as having had a
common cold. After excluding those aged < 20 years and those
who visited medical care institutions other than primary care clinics,
10,776 patients were selected. Among these patients, a total of 3,530
were included in the final analysis after excluding those without any
drug prescription associated with the common cold and diagnosed with GI
disorders within the 90 days before the diagnosis of colds (Fig. 1).
The demographic and clinical characteristics of the study subjects are
summarised in Table 1. The proportion of female subjects was higher than
that of male subjects (51.76% vs. 48.24%), and most patients were
covered by the National Health Insurance (98.47%). The proportion of
patients who were prescribed NSAIDs was 57.22%, and the most prevalent
comorbid disorder was hypertension (16.09%), followed by diabetes
mellitus (8.53%).