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Review
. 2021 Oct 18;11(4):e38.
doi: 10.5415/apallergy.2021.11.e38. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Epidemiology of adult chronic cough: disease burden, regional issues, and recent findings

Ji-Hyang Lee  1 , Sung-Yoon Kang  2 , Youngsang Yoo  1   3 , Jin An  4 , So-Young Park  5 , Ji-Ho Lee  6 , Seung-Eun Lee  7 , Min-Hye Kim  8 , Yoshihiro Kanemitsu  9 , Yoon-Seok Chang  10   11 , Woo-Jung Song  1
Affiliations
Review

Epidemiology of adult chronic cough: disease burden, regional issues, and recent findings

Ji-Hyang Lee et al. Asia Pac Allergy. .

Abstract

Chronic cough is a common medical condition that has a significant impact on patients' quality of life. Although it was previously considered a symptom of other disorders, it is now regarded as a pathologic state that is characterized by a deviation from the intrinsic protective functions of the cough reflex, especially in adults. There are several factors that may underlie the cough reflex hypersensitivity and its persistence, such as age, sex, comorbidities, viral infection, exposure to irritants or environmental pollutants, and their interactions may determine the epidemiology of chronic cough in different countries. With a deeper understanding of disease pathophysiology and advanced research methodology, there are more attempts to investigate cough epidemiology using a large cohort of healthcare population data. This is a narrative overview of recent findings on the disease burden, risk factors, Asia-Pacific issues, and longitudinal outcomes in adults with chronic cough. This paper also discusses the approaches utilizing routinely collected data in cough research.

Keywords: Asia-Pacific; Burden of disease; Cough; Epidemiology; Longitudinal outcome; Risk factor.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

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