Associations Between Occupational Exposures and Cough Subclasses Among Middle-Aged Australians

Area of Science:

• Occupational health
• Respiratory medicine
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Conflicting evidence exists regarding occupation-related chronic cough.
• Current definitions of chronic cough do not fully capture its diverse nature.
• Novel cough subclasses have been identified, necessitating investigation into subclass-specific occupational risks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify specific occupational risks associated with newly characterized cough subclasses.
• To compare the utility of novel cough subclasses versus standard definitions in identifying occupational exposures.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS).
• Occupational exposures were coded using the ALOHA+ Job Exposure Matrix (ever-exposure and cumulative exposure).
• Six identified cough subclasses from 2213 current coughers at age 53 were compared to non-coughers (n=1396) using multinomial and logistic regression.

Main Results:

• Biological dust exposure was associated with allergic cough (cumulative exposure).
• Aromatic solvents were linked to chronic dry cough (cumulative exposure).
• Other solvents and herbicides showed associations with productive cough, chronic bronchitis, and chronic phlegm.

Conclusions:

• Novel cough subclasses demonstrate distinct associations with specific occupational exposures, suggesting varied pathophysiological mechanisms.
• The identified subclass-specific risks include biological dust for allergic cough, aromatic solvents for dry cough, and herbicides/other solvents for productive cough.
• Employing novel cough subclasses proved superior to standard definitions in uncovering these occupation-related cough associations.