Quality of life and psychosocial aspects of cough

Chronic cough is a common condition that causes considerable physical and psychological morbidity. The physical symptoms of cough are readily apparent; however, the psychosocial symptoms are often overlooked. Appreciation of the impact of cough on health-related quality of life has led to the development of three validated, cough-specific, health-related quality-of-life questionnaires that assess cough severity: Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ), Cough-specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (CQLQ), and Chronic Cough Impact Questionnaire (CCIQ). These tools capture additional information not measured with objective tools and can be used to assess therapy. They should be used in conjunction with other cough severity measures such as cough frequency monitors to obtain a more complete assessment of cough severity. Recent cough guidelines endorse the measurement of cough-specific quality of life and these questionnaires are ideal tools to facilitate this.