Reduced cough severity and improved confidence in self-management following completion of a Virtual Physiotherapy...

Prolonged waiting times significantly limited access to our respiratory physiotherapy service for cough control therapy. In response, we developed a virtual physiotherapy group intervention for individuals with chronic cough (ViP-Cough) to improve accessibility. This article describes the uptake and potential benefits of this novel approach.

A service evaluation was carried out utilising a retrospective observational cohort study design involving patients with chronic cough referred to a single-centre respiratory physiotherapy service. All referrals were assessed by a specialist physiotherapist and offered access to ViP-Cough, a single-session virtual group intervention comprising: 1) education and lifestyle advice; 2) cough control strategies; and 3) breathing pattern retraining and vocal hygiene. Patients completed outcome measures at baseline and 4 weeks post-intervention, including numerical rating scales (NRS) for cough severity, frequency and impact on daily activities (0-10; higher scores indicating worse outcomes), and confidence in self-management (0-10; higher scores indicating better outcomes). Descriptive statistics and paired samples t-tests were used for analysis.

Of the 194 patients referred (median age 61 years; 79% female), 70% reported cough duration >5 years. Of those screened, 155 (80%) opted in; 116 attended, and 106 completed all assessments. Significant improvements were observed in cough severity (mean difference (95% CI) -1.26 (-0.82- -1.70), p<0.001), frequency (-1.19 (-0.79- -1.60), p<0.001), impact on daily life (-1.16 (-0.23- -1.61), p<0.001) and confidence in self-management (+2.16 (1.64-2.68), p<0.001).

ViP-Cough is a promising, scalable and low-cost approach to delivering nonpharmacological cough therapy. These preliminary findings support further evaluation in a randomised controlled trial.