An analysis of factors for quality-of-life in patients with chronic cough / 中华内科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To constitute a correlation with the subjective indicators by investigation of the causes and clinical features in patients with chronic cough.Methods Totally 100 patients with chronic cough were recruited followed a diagnostic program.Airway responsiveness[by methacholine challenge test (MCT)],Leicester cough questionnaire(LCQ),visual analogue scale(VAS),cough score,age,gender and disease duration were all recorded for analysis.Results The top five causes of chronic cough in these patients were variant asthma,post infectious cough,atopic cough,eosinophilic bronchitis and upper airway cough syndrome.LCQ total score was negatively correlated with age and the VAS score(r=-0.239 and -0.470 respectively,all P0.05)and no correlation was found with BMI(r=-0.029,P>0.05).The physiological and psychological field score in female patients significantly reduced(t=2.174,1.990,P<0.05),and LCQ total score of MCT positive patients obviously reduced than negative ones(t=-2.22,P<0.05).After the treatment of two weeks,LCQ three component field and total score could be improved significantly(all P<0.01).Conclusion Gender and age may have some impact on the quality of life in patients with chronic cough.LCQ,VAS and cough score should be used to assess cough severity and evaluate therapeutic effect in patients with chronic cough.