Chronic cough prevalent, tied to poorer health status in adults in China

In China, chronic cough is prevalent and associated with poorer health status, especially among adults aged at least 50 years and those with COPD or small airway dysfunction, researchers reported.

“Our finding in this representative general population is that chronic cough is common, increases with age and is associated with poorer health status,” Kewu Huang, MD, from the department of pulmonary and critical care medicine in the Beijing Key Laboratory of Respiratory and Pulmonary Circulation Disorders at Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital at Capital Medical University and the Beijing Institute of Respiratory Medicine, and colleagues wrote in ERJ Open Research. “Furthermore, the impact of chronic cough on health status is more significant in individuals aged 50 years or older and those with COPD or with small airway disease.”

The cross-sectional study included 57,779 Chinese adults aged 20 years or older. Researchers conducted pulmonary function tests and assessed quality of life using the SF-12 and recorded self-reported history of hospital visits. Chronic cough was defined as cough lasting for more than 3 months in a year.

Overall, 3.6% of participants had chronic cough; 2.4% were aged 20 to 49 years and 6% were aged 50 years or older.

Researchers reported a higher prevalence of chronic cough among men vs. women (4.6% vs. 2.6%; P = .0005).

Those with chronic cough had an impaired physical component summary score in the SF-12 (P < .0001) and more ED visits (P = .0042) and hospital admissions (P = .0002).

Researchers reported a more significant impact of chronic cough on physical component summary score among participants aged 50 years or older (P = .0018) and among those with COPD (P = .0002). The impact of chronic cough on hospital admission was also more significant among participants with COPD (P = .0026) or small airway dysfunction (P = .0065) compared with those without COPD or small airway dysfunction.

“It is important to determine the long-term outcomes of the various subgroups of chronic cough in future studies,” the researchers wrote.