Chronic cough is a common respiratory symptom that affects the life of millions of people
Coughing on most days, without having a cold, for several months is one of the most common reasons why people book an appointment with their GP. Chronic cough is bothersome and has been linked to poorer health in people without obvious disease. However, the prevalence of – that is the proportion of people with – chronic cough and its associated risk factors are not well known in different regions of the world.
Using data from adults in the multinational Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease (BOLD) study, we estimated the prevalence of chronic cough in 41 locations from 34 countries around the globe and identified the factors that are more likely to determine the occurrence of chronic cough. We found a wide variation in the proportion of people with chronic cough across the different study locations – from 3% in Pune (India) to 24% in Lexington, KY (United States of America). Perhaps not surprisingly, tobacco smoking and working in a dusty job were the main risk factors for chronic cough. We identified other factors such as passive smoking, having had tuberculosis, being obese, having a low level of education and having hypertension.
Despite our findings, in many locations, we still cannot explain all of the prevalence of this chronic cough.
This manuscript has been published in eClinicalMedicine and is available here: doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102423. This work was conducted as part of the PhD thesis of Hazim Abozid.