Table 7 Facilitators, barriers and suggestions regarding the trial diaries (views of patients and professionals)

[24] Diary was clear and easy

[2] diary easy and straightforward

[1] pre-paid envelope

[11] found the diary to be daunting, wordy and complex

[10] stopped diary prematurely

[4] long, repetitive and daunting initially

○ clearer instructions to continue, even when on antibiotics or end of treatment and use big bold font

○ simpler and shorter layout (patients may be unwell) with fewer questions

○ offer yes/no answers

○ do not put tick boxes as people fill them inaccurately

○ change from 1 to 6 to 1–10 as more commonly used

○ could be simpler language

○ make the font bigger

○ make it more user-friendly

○ bind it together better

○ simplify and make it less busy

○ slim down the demographics

[16] EQ5D was easy

[9] found the EQ5D difficult to rate

○ give guidance how to complete EQ5D (e.g. 5 = you don’t have any energy to go out to the shop, 100 = you feel you can walk up a mountain)

○ change EQ5D with a more objective measure, e.g. frequency of coughing, amount & colour of phlegm (easier to remember and report) or ask, ‘do you feel better today than 2 days ago?’

○ change EQ5D to 0–10 (too much scope otherwise)

[16] Phone calls from research team were very helpful

[2] missed some sections

○ be clear and remind patients about the trial when the trial team call them

○ more details on early pages on symptoms

○ call /text /email on last day of medicine to remind them to carry on with the diaries

[12] Filling in the diary as you go was helpful

○ follow logical order and split questions to have each day in one page/section (DAY 1 on the top)

○ spread it out more

[8] Diary left in open view as reminder

○ make the days bolder and bigger (not in tiny boxes)

[4] Had a routine

○ offer choice for diaries: paper or electronically