Trajectories of chronic cough in older adults and their associations with airway diseases

<bold>RATIONALE:</bold> The highest unmet clinical need in patients with chronic cough presents in persistent or refractory chronic cough, i.e. cough that persists despite guideline-based treatment. <bold>AIM:</bold> To investigate patterns in chronic cough and their associations with asthma and COPD. <bold>METHODS:</bold> We included 2559 participants from the Rotterdam Study, a prospective population-based cohort study in the Netherlands, with cough status on 3 different timepoints over 14 years of follow-up. Chronic cough was defined as daily cough for at least 3 months during the previous year. Asthma and COPD were defined based on review of medical records and spirometry. Adjusted logistic regression models were computed for the associations between chronic cough and asthma, COPD, and rhinitis. <bold>RESULTS:</bold> At baseline, participants had a median age of 59 years and 58.8% (n=1505) were women. 74.3% of participants never reported chronic cough, whereas late-onset and persistent chronic cough were reported by 11.4% and 1.9% respectively (Fig. 1A). Remission of chronic cough was reported by 7.8%. Compared to controls, participants with persistent chronic cough had 4.5 times higher odds of asthma [CI 2.1-8.8], 1.3 times higher odds of COPD [0.7-2.5] and 2.2 times higher odds of rhinitis [1.2-3.9] (Fig 1B). <fig><object-id>erj;66/suppl_69/PA456/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig> <bold>CONCLUSION:</bold> Persistent chronic cough is strongly associated with asthma and rhinitis, highlighting the need for targeted treatment strategies in these patients.