RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The demographics, clinical characteristics and quality of life of chronic cough in patients from the Isala Cough Clinic in the Netherlands
JF ERJ Open Research
JO erjor
FD European Respiratory Society
SP 00232-2022
DO 10.1183/23120541.00232-2022
A1 Jan van den Berg
A1 Carl Baxter
A1 Mireille Edens
A1 Niels Patberg
A1 Hester van der Velden
A1 Arjan Weijerse
A1 Stina Salomonsson
YR 2022
UL http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2022/09/22/23120541.00232-2022.abstract
AB Introduction Chronic cough affects approximately 10% of the population and adversely impacts their quality of life. This retrospective observational cohort study aimed to identify the demographics, clinical characteristics and quality of life of the chronic cough population in a Dutch chronic cough clinic, at baseline and following treatment at 6-months. Patients were categorised based on the underlying phenotype and response to treatment.Methods Retrospective data on 2397 patients who were diagnosed according to standard guidelines of the American College of Chest Physicians were analysed. Quality of life was captured via the Leicester Cough Questionnaire, the Cough Numeric Rating Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.Results The mean patient age was 59 years, 62.5% of the patients were female and 69.1% had at least one underlying phenotype associated with chronic cough. Of the latter, 52.1% had bronchial hyperresponsiveness/airflow limitation, 33.3% had airway reflux and 20.1% had upper airway cough syndrome. 46% of patients with a phenotype, and 51% without, experienced no improvement in their quality of life or still had significant cough remaining after 6 months. Of patients with available quality of life data 37.5% were categorised as having refractory chronic cough, and 9.5% were categorised as unexplained chronic cough.Discussion This study highlights the poor quality of life outcomes in patients with chronic cough, despite interventions to treat underlying conditions and indicates a need to manage chronic cough irrespective of phenotype.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: JWK van den Berg participates on a Data Safety Monitoring Board or Advisory Board at GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Chiesi Ltd, Novartis AG and Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.Conflict of interest: A Weijerse is a full-time employee MSD BV, The Netherlands, and shareholder of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.Conflict of interest: CA Baxter is a full-time employee of MSD (UK) Limited, London, UK, and shareholder of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.Conflict of interest: H van der Velden is a full-time employee of MSD BV, The Netherlands.Conflict of interest: S Salomonsson is a full-time employee of MSD Sweden, and shareholder of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.