Chest
Clinical InvestigationsCOUGHEvaluation of a Cough-Specific Quality-of-Life Questionnaire
Section snippets
Patients
Three different groups of coughing subjects were prospectively studied. The first group comprised patients who had complained of cough for at least 8 weeks, who we referred to as chronic coughers. The second group comprised patients who had complained of cough for no more than 3 weeks, who we referred to as acute coughers. The third group comprised smokers who had a cough but were not complaining of cough. While chronic and acute coughers were seeking medical care because of their cough,
Characteristics of Study Groups
The group of chronic coughers were composed of 154 subjects (38 men and 116 women) with a mean (± SD) age of 54.3 ± 14.3 years (white, 149; African American, 4; and Hispanic, 1). They had complained of cough for an average of 76.6 ± 83.6 months. The group of acute coughers was composed of 30 subjects (14 men and 16 women) with a mean age of 52.3 ± 14.5 years (white, 30). They had complained of cough for < 3 weeks. The group of smokers was composed of 31 subjects (9 men and 22 women) with a mean
Discussion
By psychometrically analyzing CQLQ data from patients complaining of chronic and acute cough, and smokers with a cough who were not complaining of it, two major conclusions emerged.
First, the 28-item CQLQ qualifies as a cough-specific quality-of-life instrument4 that is reliable and valid for evaluating the impact of acute and chronic cough on adult patients. To our knowledge, the CQLQ is unique because there is no other cough-specific quality-of-life instrument. On the basis of FA of the data
The CQLQ
This instrument (The Cough Quality of Life Questionnaire ©2000 by Richard S. Irwin, Cynthia T. French, and Kenneth E. Fletcher; all rights reserved) is protected by copyright. No part of it may be modified, reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, or utilized without the prior written consent of the authors. (For information, please write to Dr. Irwin.)
References (11)
- et al.
Chronic cough with a history of excessive sputum production
Chest
(1995) - et al.
Measuring persistent cough in children in epidemiological studies: development of a questionnaire and assessment of prevalence in two countries
Chest
(1999) - et al.
Impact of chronic cough on quality of life
Arch Intern Med
(1998) - et al.
Chronic cough: the spectrum and frequency of causes, key components of the diagnostic evaluation, and outcome of specific therapy
Am Rev Respir Dis
(1990) - et al.
Cough and the common cold
Am Rev Respir Dis
(1988)
Cited by (0)
Presented and published in part in abstract form at the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society, May 10, 2000, in Toronto, ON, Canada.