Lung. 2025 Oct 4;203(1):97. doi: 10.1007/s00408-025-00853-z.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Refractory chronic cough (RCC) significantly impairs patient quality of life and poses a major challenge in clinical management. However, little is known about the healthcare resource utilization (HRU) of patients with RCC.
OBJECTIVE: The goal of our study is to describe the HRU and associated costs of RCC patients and those with non-refractory chronic cough (non-RCC).
METHODS: Patients with chronic cough were prospectively recruited from 6 centers in France. At 6 months, the patients were classified as having RCC or no RCC. A retrospective analysis was made using the French National Health Insurance Database (SNDS) in order to determine healthcare utilization for the one-year period preceding inclusion at the site and for the one-year period thereafter.
RESULTS: Sixty-eight patients were included. Among them, 32 (47%) patients had RCC. There was no difference between groups regarding clinical data apart from cough duration (56.8 ± 59.5 months in the no RCC group vs. 139.3 ± 123.8 months in the RCC group, p = 0.002). Within 1 year prior to inclusion, there was no difference in terms of drug dispensations between the 2 groups. During the 1-year post-inclusion period, a significantly higher proportion of patients with RCC received at least one dispensation of opioids and amitriptyline compared to those with no RCC (8 (25%) vs. 2 (6%) for opioids, p = 0.038 and 14 (44%) vs. 3 (8%) for amitriptyline, p = 0.0015, respectively). Within 1 year after inclusion, more patients with RCC had attended speech pathologist visits in comparison to patients with no RCC (14 (44%) patients vs. 10 (28%) patients, p = 0.21, respectively). Total costs within 12 months prior to inclusion were 3,878€ [2,498 – 5,755€] for patients with no RCC and 5,159€ [3,426 – 7,138€] with RCC, but the difference was not significant. No change occurred in the 1-year period following inclusion.
CONCLUSION: RCC has a high healthcare utilization with substantial costs.
PMID:41046288 | DOI:10.1007/s00408-025-00853-z
