Patient profile of individuals with chronic cough
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Patient profile of inviduals with chronic cough
IRAS ID
160289
Contact name
Sean Parker
Contact email
Research summary
Chronic cough is common and can affect the person’s quality of life and well-being. Sometimes a physical cause is discovered and a diagnosis can be made. However, other times no biological cause for the cough can be found, despite in-depth medical investigation. Most patients improve and a diagnosis is found following simple investigations and trials of treatments, however, a proportion of patients (20-40%) do not respond and the cause is unclear. This kind of cough is then classed as unexplained or ‘idiopathic’.
In other medically unexplained symptoms, such as bowel problems or pain, certain factors have been identified which are linked to these difficulties. Chronic cough, especially the unexplained type, is still quite a new field though so not much information about patients suffering from it has been collected. Previous research has found that people with chronic cough have a much lower quality of life than people in the general population and that they report higher levels of emotional distress. Other important aspects like personality, fatigue, experiencing additional physical symptoms and illness perceptions (beliefs individuals have about their illness) have not been looked into though. By profiling patients presenting to the respiratory outpatient clinic with chronic cough and seeing whether factors, such as those mentioned above, are associated with their cough, it is hoped that a better understanding of this population will be gained, helping to form the basis of interventions in the future. In the long run this will hopefully mean chronic cough patients have access to treatment which can improve their quality of life and other health outcomes.
REC name
North East - Tyne & Wear South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/NE/1106
Date of REC Opinion
28 Aug 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion