Self-Care for Common Colds by Primary Care Patients: A European Multicenter Survey on the Prevalence and Patterns of Practices—The COCO Study

Table 3

Rarely used (1% to <5%) self-care practices on item level ( = 2,724), weighted by age.

		%
Foodstuffs
Tea
Fruit
Elderberry	124	4.7
Raspberry	109	3.9
Apple peel	62	2.4
Other/unspecific	555	2.3
Herbal
Marshmallow root	129	4.8
Echinacea propolis	104	4.0
Eucalyptus	91	3.3
Pine syrup	73	2.7
St. John’s wort	70	2.6
Verbena	37	1.4
Other/unspecific	73	2.7
Alcohol
Mulled wine	104	3.8
Alcohol added to other liquids	39	1.4
Beer/wine	36	1.2
Onion cough syrup	112	4.1
Milk with butter	106	3.9
Onion juice with honey	100	3.8
Food with marjoram	86	2.9
Other solid food	66	2.5
Soup: other/unspecific	49	1.9
Other liquids	45	1.7
Intestinal absorption
Calcium	126	4.3
Zinc	64	2.4
Plantago cough syrup	65	2.3
Umckaloabo	35	1.4
Extras at home
Electric warming blanket	55	2.1
Inhalation
Eucalyptus (oil)	129	4.8
Essential oil (unspecific)	117	4.5
Camphor (oil)	27	1.0
Local oral effects
Herbal lozenges (unspecific)	127	4.8
Cinnamon lozenges	37	1.4
Oral antiseptics	35	1.4
Topical use in throat
Gargle with chamomile	71	2.5
Anti-infectives	44	1.6
External use
Chest rub with alcohol	93	3.5
Calf compress	61	2.3
Cupping	54	2.0

European Standard Population 2013.