ArticleBMJ open respiratory research2019
'Dry' and 'wet' cough: how reliable is parental reporting?
Article in BMJ open respiratory research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Early mobilization, breathing exercises and chest wall oscillation in patients with bilateral pneumonia disease in the intensive care unit: a randomized clinical trial.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2025Trial
- Caregiver awareness and preparedness regarding pediatric foreign body aspiration and emergency response in Poland: a cross-sectional observational study.BMC pediatrics · 2025Observational
- Pediatric bronchiectasis-the importance of early diagnosis of children across the chronic wet cough spectrum.Journal of thoracic disease · 2025Review
- Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Acute Cough in Indian Pediatric Population: Insights from Real-World Study.Journal of pharmacy & bioallied sciences · 2025Article
- Experiences of symptom burden among young children born with esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula: a US focus group study.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2025Article
- Time to re-set our thinking about airways disease: lessons from history, the resurgence of chronic bronchitis / PBB and modern concepts in microbiology.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2024Review
- Controversies in Antibiotic Use for Chronic Wet Cough in Children.The Journal of pediatrics · 2024Article
- Review
- Precision Medicine and Childhood Asthma: A Guide for the Unwary.Journal of personalized medicine · 2022Review
- A systematic review on cough sound analysis for Covid-19 diagnosis and screening: is my cough sound COVID-19?PeerJ. Computer science · 2022Article
- History Taking as a Diagnostic Tool in Children With Chronic Cough.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2022Review
- Typical RSV cough: myth or reality? A diagnostic accuracy study.European journal of pediatrics · 2021Article
- Time to Say Goodbye to Bronchiolitis, Viral Wheeze, Reactive Airways Disease, Wheeze Bronchitis and All That.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Chronic cough in childhood is common and causes much parental anxiety. Eliciting a diagnosis can be difficult as it is a non-specific symptom indicating airways inflammation and this may be due to a variety of aetiologies. A key part of assessment is obtaining an accurate cough history. It has previously been shown that parental reporting of 'wheeze' is frequently inaccurate. This study aimed to determine whether parental reporting of the quality of a child's cough is likely to be accurate. Methods: Parents of 48 'new' patients presenting to a respiratory clinic with chronic cough were asked to describe the nature of their child's cough. They were then shown video clips of different types of cough using age-appropriate examples, and their initial report was compared with the types of cough chosen from the video. Results: In a quarter of cases, the parents chose a video clip of a 'dry' or 'wet' cough having given the opposite description. In a further 20% parents chose examples of both 'dry' and 'wet' coughs despite having used only one descriptor. Discussion: While the characteristics of a child's cough carry important information that may be helpful in reaching a diagnosis, clinicians should interpret parental reporting of the nature of a child's cough with some caution in that one person's 'dry' cough may very well be another person's 'wet' cough.
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