Kum Elena, Guyatt Gordon H, Munoz Caroline, Beaudin Suzanne, Li Shelly-Anne, Abdulqawi Rayid, Badri Huda, Boulet Louis-Philippe, Chen Ruchong, Dicpinigaitis Peter, Dupont Lieven, Field Stephen K, French Cynthia L, Gibson Peter G, Irwin Richard S, Marsden Paul, McGarvey Lorcan, Smith Jaclyn A, Song Woo-Jung, O'Byrne Paul M, Satia Imran
Dept of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Dept of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
ERJ Open Res. 2022 Mar 14;8(1). doi: 10.1183/23120541.00667-2021. eCollection 2022 Jan.
Cough symptom severity represents an important subjective end-point to assess the impact of therapies for patients with refractory or unexplained chronic cough (RCC/UCC). As existing instruments assessing the severity of cough are neither widely available nor tested for measurement properties, we aim to develop a new patient-reported outcome measure addressing cough severity.
The aim of this study was to establish items and domains that would inform development of a new cough severity instrument.
Three focus groups involving 16 adult patients with RCC/UCC provided data that we analysed using directed content analysis. Discussions led to consensus among an international panel of 15 experts on candidate items and domains to assess cough severity.
The patient focus group provided 48 unique items arranged under broad domains of urge-to-cough sensations and cough symptom. Feedback from expert panel members confirmed the appropriateness of items and domains, and provided an additional subdomain related to cough triggers. The final conceptual framework comprised 51 items in the following domains: urge-to-cough sensations (subdomains: frequency and intensity) and cough symptom (subdomains: triggers, control, frequency, fit/bout duration, intensity, quality and associated features/sequelae).
Consensus findings from patients and international experts established domains of urge-to-cough and cough symptom with associated subdomains and relevant items. The results support item generation and content validity for a novel patient-reported outcome measure for use in health research and clinical practice.
咳嗽症状严重程度是评估难治性或不明原因慢性咳嗽（RCC/UCC）患者治疗效果的重要主观终点。由于现有的评估咳嗽严重程度的工具既未广泛应用，也未对其测量特性进行测试，我们旨在开发一种新的患者报告结局指标来评估咳嗽严重程度。
本研究的目的是确定可用于开发新的咳嗽严重程度评估工具的条目和领域。
三个焦点小组，共16名成年RCC/UCC患者提供了数据，我们使用定向内容分析法进行分析。讨论促使15名国际专家组成的小组就评估咳嗽严重程度的候选条目和领域达成共识。
患者焦点小组提供了48个独特的条目，这些条目归为咳嗽冲动感觉和咳嗽症状这两个宽泛领域。专家小组成员的反馈证实了条目的适宜性，并提供了一个与咳嗽触发因素相关的新子领域。最终的概念框架包括51个条目，分属以下领域：咳嗽冲动感觉（子领域：频率和强度）和咳嗽症状（子领域：触发因素、控制、频率、发作/持续时间、强度、性质及相关特征/后遗症）。
患者和国际专家达成的共识确定了咳嗽冲动和咳嗽症状的领域以及相关子领域和条目。这些结果支持了一种用于健康研究和临床实践的新型患者报告结局指标的条目生成及内容效度。
