Abstract

Background: Cough is a common symptom during childhood. It leads to many medical consultations, affects the quality of life (QoL), and places a considerable burden on the parents. The aim of this study was to assess the QoL of children with acute cough using the Parent-proxy Children’s Acute Cough-specific QoL (PAC-QoL) Questionnaire.
Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study in which the online PAC-QoL Questionnaire was used. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM, version 22) was used, and a two-tailed p-value of 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Two hundred children had participated in the present study; their mean age was 4.3 ± 1.5 years. The majority of children were female (65%). On day 3, 140 children were still coughing. The median cough duration was 4 days [Interquartile Range (IQR): 2-5 days] and the median cough Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score was 7 (IQR: 4-8). 107 children were still coughing on day 14, and the change in the PAC-QoL scores significantly correlated with the change in VAS (p-value = 0.011) and emotional and social domains with a p-value of 0.03 and 0.04, respectively.
Conclusion: Acute cough is common in preschool children and is more prevalent in females. Approximatel =one-half of the children had recovered from cough in 14 days. Acute cough in children had a negative impact on the health-related QoL domains.

Key words: Cough, children, parents, quality of life