Predictors of duration of acute sinusitis episodes treated with antibiotics

Objective - To evaluate which factors present at the onset of acute sinusitis predict the duration of illness among adult patients treated with antibiotics. Design - Cohort study with a 30-day follow-up. Setting - Norwegian general practice. Subjects - Eighty-six adult patients with a clinical diagnosis of acute sinusitis confirmed by Computed Tomography. Methods - Signs, symptoms and other variables present at the onset of treatment were dichotomized and analysed bivariately with duration of the sinusitis episode, using the log-rank test. Age, gender, and factors with p-values under 0.15 were modelled in a Cox regression analysis to assess independent predictors for illness duration. Main outcome measure - Duration of illness. Results - Illness duration was significantly and positively associated with increasing age and with a higher clinical severity score at the onset of treatment. No other factors were independent predictors of illness duration. Conclusion - The age of the patient and the clinical severity of the sinusitis at the onset of treatment were independent predictors of illness duration in adult patients treated with antibiotics.