Abstract
Background Chronic cough is a troublesome condition that is defined by the presence of cough for >8 weeks. A wide variety of occupational lung diseases (OLD) have recognised potential causes or exacerbating factors in persistent cough. Chronic cough guidelines recommend screening employed patients for potential occupational and environmental causes of cough. However, the prevalence and severity of persistent cough in the OLD population is unknown. We set out to investigate the prevalence and effect on quality of life, of chronic cough in patients attending specialist OLD services.
Methods We carried out a cross-sectional descriptive study of consecutive patients attending the OLD service. Patients with a diagnosis of OLD and a persistent cough of >8weeks duration were included. Patients taking angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors were excluded. Demographic data, duration of cough, work relatedness of cough, smoking status, past medical history and medication history was collected. Cough severity was measured using the Cough Visual Analogue Score (VAS) and the Leicester Cough (LCQ) Questionnaire. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to investigate the effects of sex, BMI, age, diagnosis, smoking status and pack-year history on questionnaire scores and to calculate the estimated marginal mean scores for each disease group.
Results Forty out of seventy patients screened (57%) had a chronic cough. However, six of the chronic cough patients were excluded as they did not have a diagnosis of OLD. The proportion in each diagnostic group is shown in figure 1. The patients were all Caucasian and the majority were male (82%). 27% were current smokers. Median age was 66 year (IQR 55–74). Mean cough duration was 7.53 years (SD 6.4). Daytime cough VAS was 49mm (IQR 30–69) and LCQ 12.98 (SD 3.8). The GLM results showed that LCQ scores were significantly affected by diagnosis (p=0.023), with occupational asthma patients (OA) having the lowest scores. Smoking history also affected the LCQ (p=0.025).
Conclusions This preliminary data suggests that chronic cough is prevalent in OLD and cough severity is comparable to those with refractory chronic cough. OA patients are particularly affected. This is an important finding as OA is a preventable cause of chronic cough.
Methods We carried out a cross-sectional descriptive study of consecutive patients attending the OLD service. Patients with a diagnosis of OLD and a persistent cough of >8weeks duration were included. Patients taking angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors were excluded. Demographic data, duration of cough, work relatedness of cough, smoking status, past medical history and medication history was collected. Cough severity was measured using the Cough Visual Analogue Score (VAS) and the Leicester Cough (LCQ) Questionnaire. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to investigate the effects of sex, BMI, age, diagnosis, smoking status and pack-year history on questionnaire scores and to calculate the estimated marginal mean scores for each disease group.
Results Forty out of seventy patients screened (57%) had a chronic cough. However, six of the chronic cough patients were excluded as they did not have a diagnosis of OLD. The proportion in each diagnostic group is shown in figure 1. The patients were all Caucasian and the majority were male (82%). 27% were current smokers. Median age was 66 year (IQR 55–74). Mean cough duration was 7.53 years (SD 6.4). Daytime cough VAS was 49mm (IQR 30–69) and LCQ 12.98 (SD 3.8). The GLM results showed that LCQ scores were significantly affected by diagnosis (p=0.023), with occupational asthma patients (OA) having the lowest scores. Smoking history also affected the LCQ (p=0.025).
Conclusions This preliminary data suggests that chronic cough is prevalent in OLD and cough severity is comparable to those with refractory chronic cough. OA patients are particularly affected. This is an important finding as OA is a preventable cause of chronic cough.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Thorax |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2024 |
