Clinical impact and healthcare resource utilisation in patients with unexplained or refractory chronic cough: a...

The epidemiological, clinical and medico-economic burden of unexplained or refractory chronic cough (URCC) is poorly known.

To describe sociodemographic characteristics, clinical impact, healthcare resource utilisation and associated costs in French patients with URCC.

Populations of interest (chronic cough, URCC, controls) were identified from the general population-based Constances cohort (124 565 participants at the time of study inception) and invited to answer a specific ad hoc questionnaire on cough. Their healthcare resource utilisation data were extracted from the National Healthcare Database System.

Populations of interest were identified among participants for whom data and questionnaire responses were available (n=5277): URCC (n=116), non-URCC (n=1357) and no chronic cough (reference group; n=3804). The extrapolated frequencies of chronic cough and URCC in the Constances cohort were 3.8% and 0.22%, respectively. URCC was mainly associated with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (31.0%) and asthma/COPD (18.3%). Depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale score ≥16) were significantly more frequent in patients with URCC than in controls (43.0% versus 24.0%, p=0.0036). Over the previous 12 months, the mean number of medical visits was higher in the URCC group than in controls (9.1 versus 6.0, p=0.0002). Treatment for underlying conditions of interest were also more frequent in the URCC group. Compared to controls, a 36% increase in medical visits and a four times increase in treatments of underlying conditions of interest were observed in the URCC group.

URCC is associated with an important clinical impact and high healthcare resource utilisation and associated costs. The burden of URCC is significant and remains an unmet medical need.