Outcome Measures for Chronic Cough: A Literature Review

Background: Approximately 9-10 percent of adults experience chronic cough. Chronic cough is a cough that lasts greater than eight weeks, with significant impacts on an individual\u27s quality-of-life in social, psychological, and physical domains. Current treatment is not successful for all patients, and a lack of validated outcome measures makes it challenging to determine the efficacy of experimental chronic cough interventions. Aims: The purpose of this review is to determine the optimal protocols for outcome measures needed to ascertain the efficacy of chronic cough treatment. Main contribution: Inconsistent correlations were found between objective and subjective outcome measures. The strongest outcome measure correlations were found between cough-specific quality-of-life questionnaires and objective cough frequency counting. Methods of objective measures vary and require further investigation. Conclusions: Data from both subjective and objective outcome measures are needed to determine a cough treatment\u27s efficacy due to the different constructs measured by each tool, and the inconsistent correlations found between subjective and objective outcome measures. Additionally, further standardization is needed for subjective outcome tools