Chest
Volume 127, Issue 6, June 2005, Pages 1991-1998
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Clinical Investigations
A Comparison of Gender Differences in Health-Related Quality of Life in Acute and Chronic Coughers

https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.127.6.1991Get rights and content

Study objectives

To determine whether the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of women and men is adversely affected by acute cough (AC), affected differently by AC, or affected differently by AC and chronic cough (CC).

Design

Analysis of consecutively and prospectively collected AC data from two time periods, and previously prospectively and consecutively collected CC data that had not been previously analyzed. When no differences were found in the two cohorts of acute coughers, as was the case in the greatest majority of comparisons, the two samples were pooled, treated as one sample of acute coughers, and compared with chronic coughers.

Settings

Primary care and cough clinics in an academic, tertiary care medical center.

Participants

Subjects prospectively seeking medical attention complaining of AC for < 3 weeks and CC for at least 8 weeks.

Measurement

All subjects completed the cough-specific quality-of-life questionnaire (CQLQ) prior to contact with a physician and medical intervention.

Results

Of 62 acute coughers, 32 were women and 30 were men (p = 0.25). Total CQLQ scores for women were 59.9, and for men they were 59.2. (There was no difference in total CQLQ scores in the two cohorts of acute coughers.) The mean (± SD) combined total CQLQ score of women and men of 59.57 ± 10.4 was higher (t90 = 11.39; p < 0.0001) than the score in an historical control group of women and men who were not complaining of cough (35.06 ± 8.40). In acute coughers, there were no gender differences in the total or six subscale scores when the two cohorts were considered separately or combined. Of 172 chronic coughers, 116 were women and 56 were men (p < 0.0001). Women with CC rated themselves significantly higher than did women with AC on the total CQLQ and on five of the six subscales. Women with AC did not rate themselves higher on any of the CQLQ subscales. Total CQLQ scores for men with AC and CC were similar. Men with CC, compared with men with AC, scored significantly higher in two of six subscales (and significantly lower in one subscale) and scored similarly in three subscales.

Conclusions

AC, like CC, adversely affected the HRQOL of women and men. Unlike CC, AC did not adversely affect the HRQOL of women more than men. The HRQOL of women is more adversely affected than the HRQOL of men, the longer a cough lasts.

Section snippets

Materials and Methods

To compare the HRQOL of women with AC to that of men with AC, pooled data, which were prospectively collected from 62 subjects who presented to primary care physicians complaining of AC, were analyzed from two time periods. AC was defined as a cough < 3 weeks in duration. Data from the first 30 subjects had been collected consecutively and prospectively during psychometric testing of the CQLQ.5 These data have not previously been reported. Data from the remaining 32 subjects were consecutively

Characteristics of Acute Coughers

This cohort was composed of 62 subjects. Of the 62 subjects, 32 (51.6%) were women with a mean (± SD) age of 42.2 ± 14.3 years, and 30 (48.4%) were men with a mean age of 48.6 ± 16.9 years. The original sample of acute coughers was significantly older on average (t60 = 3.67; p < 0.001) than those in the second sample, with a mean age of 52.3 ± 14.5 years (median age, 49.3 years; age range, 19.3 to 83.9 years) vs 38.8 ± 14.4 years (median age, 35.1 years; age range, 18.6 to 87.8 years),

Discussion

The 28-item CQLQ was designed to evaluate for the major meaningful psychosocial and physical complaints of cough. Based on extensive psychometric testing that has been previously performed and reported, the CQLQ has been shown to have dimensionality that is consistent with a cough-specific quality-of-life instrument, and to be a valid and reliable method by which to assess the impact of cough on the HRQOL of patients with both AC and CC from a variety of causes.5

Utilizing the CQLQ, we first

References (14)

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Presented and published in part in abstract form at the annual meeting of the American Thoracic Society, May 21, 2002, Atlanta, GA.

Reproduction of this article is prohibited without written permission from the American College of Chest Physicians (www.chestjournal.org/misc/reprints.shtml).

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