Background

Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of a clinical scorecard in managing sore throat in general practice.

Design: Validation study of scorecard for sore throat with a throat swab culture used as the 'gold standard'.

Setting: A solo family practice in rural New South Wales, Australia

Participants: Patients attending with sore throat.

Methods

Patients from the age of 5 years and above presenting with the main symptom of a sore throat, and who have not had any antibiotic treatment in the previous two weeks, were invited to participate in the study. The doctor completed a scorecard for each patient participating and took a throat swab for culture. Adult patients (> 16 yrs) were asked to complete a patient satisfaction questionnaire, while guardians accompanying children (5 yr to < 16 yrs old) were asked to complete a similar, guardian questionnaire.

Main outcome measures:

1. Ability of a new scorecard to differentiate between bacterial and non-bacterial sore throat.

2. Patients' trust in the scorecard.

Results

The scorecard has a sensitivity of 93.33%, a specificity of 63.16%, a positive predictive value of 50% and a negative predictive value of 96%. The sensitivity is better than other sore throat scorecards that have been published but with a slightly lower specificity.

There was a high level of patient trust in the scorecard was (85.8% agreement). Patients also trusted their doctor's judgement based on the scorecard (90.6% agreement).

Conclusions

As the scorecard has a high sensitivity but only a moderate specificity, this means that it is more reliable for negative results, i.e. when the result suggests a viral infection. When the result favours a bacterial sore throat, then a high sensitivity can mean that there are a number of false positives. GPs can be confident in withholding antibiotics when the scorecard indicates a viral infection.