Assessment of chronic cough with numerical rating scale

<bold>Introduction:</bold> Numerical rating scale (NRS) is increasingly preferred over the cough severity visual analogue scale (VAS) by regulatory bodies in the assessment of chronic cough (CC) in clinical trials; however, little is known about its performance. We aimed to investigate the performance of the NRS. <bold>Methods:</bold> Consecutive patients with CC completed the NRS (0-10; higher scores=higher severity), VAS (0–100 mm; higher scores=higher severity) and cough-specific health status Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ: 3–21; higher scores=better health status) at specialist cough clinic visits. Repeatability of the NRS was assessed in consecutive patients with stable cough (<20mm change in VAS) at a later clinic visit. <bold>Results:</bold> Thirty-two participants completed the assessments; median (IQR) age 55 (48-62) years and 27 (84%) female. Participants reported mean (SD) NRS 7 (2), median (IQR) VAS 71 (59-81) mm and LCQ 10.3 (8.4-12.2). NRS was significantly associated with VAS (r=0.66) and LCQ (r=-0.59, both p<0.001) (Fig 1), and similar to VAS with LCQ (r=-0.57, p<0.001). 12 participants were assessed for repeatability; median (IQR) duration between visits 150 (114-172) days, mean (SD) NRS at visits 1 and 2 were 7 (2) and 6 (1), and ICC (95% CI) was 0.73 (0.30-0.92) (Fig 1). Discussion NRS is an intuitive tool, with comparable performance to the VAS. The validity, repeatability and responsiveness of NRS should be investigated in larger future studies. <fig><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA2131/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig>