Characteristics of Chronic Cough in adults in Pakistani population: A cross sectional study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Data about causes of chronic cough are lacking in our part of world. The aim of our study was to look for spectrum of causes in our setup and to determine a correlation between causes of cough and baseline factors of age, gender, and BMI and compare it to other populations. METHODS: Total 236 chronic cough patients who attended chest clinic at KRL Hospital Islamabad from January 2018 to June 2019 were included in this cross-sectional study. Chronic cough was defined as cough greater than eight weeks. Main causes of chronic cough taken were cough variant asthma, allergic rhinitis, interstitial lung disease, Gastro-esophageal reflux disease, bronchial hyper-reactivity, ACE-I induced cough and others’. Other demographic and clinical data were also recorded. RESULTS: The mean age was 45.16± 16.50 years and BMI was 26.23 ± 4.68kg/m(2). Major cause of chronic cough was cough variant asthma in 111(47%). Age had significant positive correlations with ILD, ACE-I induced cough and CCF, while significant negative correlations with CVA and AR. On gender correlation, ILD and ACE-I cough were significantly found more in females. BMI had significant correlation with ACE-I cough only. CONCLUSION: Variability of epidemiology of cough variant asthma, allergic rhinitis and ACE-I induced cough is comparable to worldwide data while differences exist with epidemiology of interstitial lung disease. Further research is needed in the field to delineate the local trends in this regard and compare to other population groups.