Summary

A chronic cough is one that lasts for longer than eight weeks. It is among the most common reasons for referral to a respiratory specialist.

Although cough frequency monitors are best to objectively assess cough, they are limited by their sampling (24 hours), expense, burden, and lack of use in clinical practice. Evaluating treatment strategies for chronic cough thus requires administration of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). While PROMs assessing the impact of cough on quality of life exist, a widely available cough severity instrument with established measurement properties remains unavailable.

Therefore, McMaster researchers have developed the McMaster Cough Severity Questionnaire (MCSQ).

Applications

• The MCSQ can be used as a primary or secondary endpoint in industry phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials of chronic cough.
• The MCSQ can be used for academic research.
• It can also be used in primary, secondary, and tertiary care for patients with chronic cough.
• The MCSQ can be incorporated into the National (CTS) and International chronic cough guidelines (ACCP, ERS).

Advantages

• Existing PROMs that assess cough severity have neither been tested for validity or responsiveness, nor made widely available.
• The MCSQ is an 8-item instrument with domains of frequency and intensity that can be used in health research and clinical practice to assess the efficacy of treatments for patients with chronic cough.

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