TY - JOUR T1 - Chronic cough in Germany: results from a general-population survey JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00420-2021 SP - 00420-2021 AU - J. Christian Virchow AU - Vicky W. Li AU - Eileen Fonseca AU - Helena Salmen AU - Ashley Martin AU - Joanne Brady AU - Christina Jannowitz AU - Jonathan Schelfhout Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2021/09/24/23120541.00420-2021.abstract N2 - Background Chronic cough (CC) which is defined≥8 weeks is a common condition in clinical practice. However, estimates of prevalence and associated comorbidities in German adults and key subgroups of age and gender are lacking.Methods Cross-sectional study based on a representative panel of 15,020 adult subjects of the general population who completed the German National Health and Wellness Survey, reporting chronic cough and questions about comorbidities. Lifetime and 12-month prevalence are presented as unweighted estimates.Results The lifetime CC prevalence was 6.5% (range across age groups, 5.1%–8.3%) and the 12-month prevalence was 4.9% (range 3.7–5.7%). The prevalence of diagnosed CC was 2.8% (range, 0.9–4.1%) and the prevalence of persons currently on any prescription to treat CC was 0.6% (range 0.2–1.4%). Respondents who experienced CC were 52.0±17.0 years old, with a higher prevalence in those aged 50 years and older. Persons with CC had higher morbidity scores and were diagnosed with an increased number of comorbidities, most frequently diagnoses of the respiratory system (71.0%), followed by digestive tract (34.0%) disorders and sleep disorders (37.6%).Conclusions In a broadly representative sample of German adults, lifetime and 12-month prevalence of CC was greatest in current and former smokers and those older≥50 years of age. Comorbidities are frequent and may complicate management of these patients.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: JCV has the following to disclose:– Lectured for and received honoraria from: AstraZeneca, Avontec, Bayer, Bencard, Bionorica, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Essex/Schering-Plough, GSK, Janssen-Cilag, Leti, MEDA, Merck, MSD, Mundipharma, Novartis, Nycomed/Altana, Pfizer, Revotar, Sandoz-Hexal, Stallergens, Teva, UCB/Schwarz-Pharma, Zydus/Cadila and possibly others– Participated in advisory boards for: Avontec, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chiesi, Essex/Schering-Plough, GSK, Janssen-Cilag, MEDA, MSD, Mundipharma, Novartis, Regeneron, Revotar, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, Sandoz-Hexal, Teva, UCB/Schwarz-Pharma and possibly others– Received research grants: Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft, Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, GSK and MSDConflict of interest: CJ an HS are full-time employees of MSD Sharp & Dohme GmbH, Haar, Germany.Conflict of interest: EF, JB, and JS are employees of Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA and shareholders in Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA.Conflict of interest: VWL and AM are employees of Kantar LLC. ER -