Clinical characteristics of patients with chronic cough in Guangdong, China: a multicenter descriptive study

Abstract

Background The clinical characteristics of patients with chronic cough are reported only in single-center survey in China, being significantly different from that in western countries. Here, we performed a multicenter study to describe the clinical characteristics of chronic cough patients. Methods A cross-sectional observational survey was conducted in thirteen tertiary hospitals of Guangdong, South China. Relevant data were recorded using a standardized questionnaire and analyzed, including demographics, educational attainment, cough features, and concomitant symptoms. Results Of 933 patients in this study, the median age was 40.0 (IQR 31.0–52.0) years with a peaked age of 30–39 years. The proportion of females (487, 52.2 %) was comparable to that of males (446, 47.8 %). Up to 81.9 % of the patients were non-smokers. More than two-thirds of the subjects with chronic cough had a low educational level. The median cough duration was 6.0 (IQR 3.0–24.0) months, and 73.0 % of chronic cough patients presented with dry cough. Laryngeal paresthesia was the most common concomitant symptom (704, 75.5 %), followed by rhinitis/sinusitis-related (350, 37.5 %) and respiratory symptoms (322, 34.5 %). Rhinitis/sinusitis-related symptoms more frequently occurred in patients with productive cough than in those with dry cough (49.0 % vs. 33.0 %, P < 0.001). Moreover, female patients displayed an older age and a higher prevalence of nocturnal cough compared to male patients (both P < 0.05). Conclusions Our results show an equal gender, young profile and laryngeal paresthesia in patients with chronic cough, and different clinical features between females and males.

Cough detection using a non-contact microphone: A nocturnal cough study

“…A significant positive correlation between age and the number of nocturnal coughs emerged here ( Fig 12A ), as was also found in [ 40 ]. Finally, the comparison of the cough rate in terms of gender revealed that women coughed significantly more than men during the night, as was also found in [ 40 ] on a database of 100 subjects (65 women), and in [ 41 ] on a database of 933 subjects (52.2% women). One possible explanation for this outcome is that women have more episodes of upper airway resistance, which may cause cough episodes [ 42 ].…”

Cough Characteristics and Healthcare Journeys of Chronic Cough Patients in Community-Based Populations in South Korea and Taiwan

“…During the last decades, several international and national guidelines have been developed for guiding the management of CC patients [7][8][9]. Several studies reported the characteristics of CC among patients visiting clinics [10][11][12][13][14]; however, there is limited knowledge about cough characteristics and healthcare journey in the community. Large general population-based studies [15][16][17] reported the prevalence of CC and its impact on health-related QoL; they mostly reported the simple presence of CC but lacked detailed cough information because they were designed to investigate general health issues.…”

A multicenter survey on the current status of chronic cough and its impact on quality of life in Guangdong, China

“…Consecutive and unselected patients attending clinics for chronic cough were invited to participate in this survey from August 2017 to August 2018. Details of the study protocol have been described previously (23). Briefly, patients were enrolled if they had an isolated chronic cough (>8 weeks), no overt lung abnormalities, and an age of 15 years or more.…”

“…A total of 1,384 patients with cough were screened, and 933 (67.4%) met the criteria and were included in this study. The patient numbers and reasons for exclusion have been previously reported (23). The median age of the patients was 40.0 (IQR, 31.0-52.0) years, with 52.2% of them being female (Table 1).…”