Evaluating the association of persistent or single-time point frequent productive cough with 12-month exacerbation rate in asthma and/or COPD

<bold>Background:</bold> Frequent productive cough (FPC) was associated with higher asthma and/or COPD exacerbation risk. We evaluated associations between persistence of FPC and exacerbations. <bold>Methods:</bold> NOVELTY (<ext-link>NCT02760329</ext-link>) is an observational multi-country 3-year study of patients with a diagnosis of asthma and/or COPD. FPC was defined as SGRQ scores of ≥3 for both cough and sputum, at baseline (BL) and annual study visits. Negative binomial regression was used to estimate incidence rate ratios for exacerbations during Year 3 (24-36M) by FPC defined either cross-sectionally as present at 24M visit or longitudinally as 'intermittent' (present at only one or two of BL, 12M and 24M visits) or 'persistent' (present at all these visits) [Table]. <bold>Results:</bold> We evaluated 2,831 patients with 3-year follow-up. Persistent FPC was associated with increased risk of exacerbations during Y3 follow-up in all three diagnostic groups (Table). FPC at 24M was associated with higher exacerbation risk for patients with asthma+COPD and with asthma; a non-statistically significant association was observed for COPD. Intermittent FPC was significantly associated with higher exacerbation risk in asthma+COPD (Table). <bold>Conclusion:</bold> FPC is a consistent marker of a higher exacerbation risk. Persistent FPC across 3 annual study visits was significantly associated with 12-month exacerbation risk. <fig><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA3884/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig>