Severity grading of the Leicester Cough Questionnaire in chronic cough

Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) is a validated measure of cough-related quality of life (QoL). Recently, the normative values of LCQ scores have been published. Here we describe a severity grading of LCQ total score (LCQts) based on its association with repetitive (3 or more during the past 12 months) self-reported doctor's visits due to chronic cough. The population was gathered from two large cross-sectional e-mail-based surveys. The first was conducted in 2017 among public service employees and the second one in 2021 among the members of the Finnish Pensioners` Federation. There were 1261 subjects with current chronic cough. Their mean (SD) age was 65.2 (12.8), range 20 – 90 years, with 73.1 % females. The subjects’ mean LCQts was 14.76 (3.05) points. It was neither associated with age nor gender. LCQts was non-linearly associated with repetitive doctor’s visits due to cough (figure). <fig><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA2137/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig> Based on this information, the limits for severe, moderate, and mild impairment in QoL were created (table) <table-wrap><object-id>erj;64/suppl_68/PA2137/TB1</object-id><object-id>T1</object-id><object-id>TB1</object-id><table><colgroup><col></col><col></col><col></col><col></col></colgroup><tbody><tr><td>Level of QoL impairment</td><td>Severe</td><td>Moderate</td><td>Mild</td></tr><tr><td>LCQts percentiles</td><td>10 - 20th</td><td>30 - 80th</td><td>90 - 100th</td></tr><tr><td>LCQts limits</td><td>3.00 - 12.28</td><td>12.29 - 17.53</td><td>17.54 - 21.00</td></tr><tr><td>Proportion of subjects with repetitive visits</td><td>32.3 – 36.8 %</td><td>4,1 – 13,5 %</td><td>1.6 %</td></tr></tbody></table></table-wrap> This grading of LCQts may help the clinical management of chronic cough. It may also be useful in selecting patients for cough drug trials and in estimating the burden of chronic cough on health resources.