{
  "abstract": "Introduction The visual analogue scale (VAS) is commonly used to assess cough severity in chronic cough patients. However, its main limitation is the difficulty patients have in marking the scale accurately, due to lack of gradings, which can lead to variability in repeated scores of stable patients. The numerical rating scale (NRS) is a graded and numbered solution. We aimed to investigate the performance of NRS against validated patient reported outcome measures and objective cough frequency monitoring.Methods Consecutive patients with chronic cough from a specialist cough clinic completed cough severity NRS and VAS (0–10 or 0–100 mm respectively; higher scores = worse severity), patient global impression of severity (PGI-S) (0 (mild) -5 (very severe)) and cough-specific health status Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) (3–21; higher scores = better quality of life). Patients were invited to undergo 24-hour objective cough frequency monitoring with the Leicester Cough Monitor (LCM).Results A total of 72 patients completed the assessments; mean (SD) age 62 (11.7) years, 55 (76%) female and 46 (64%) with a diagnosis of refractory chronic cough. Mean (SD) severity NRS, VAS, PGI-S and LCQ were 6 (2), 55 (24) mm, (3 (1) and 11.1 (3.4) respectively. The NRS scores were associated with VAS (r=0.88; p<0.001), PGI-S (r=0.75; p<0.001) and LCQ (r=0.50; p<0.001), and similar to VAS associations with PGI-S (r=0.80; p<0.001) and LCQ (r=0.51; p<0.001) ( figure 1). 18 (25%) patients also completed objective cough monitoring; mean (SD) age 64 (12) years, 15 (83%) female. Geometric mean (SD) 24-hour total cough counts were 685 (2) coughs. NRS scores were associated with 24-hour total cough count (r=0.54; p=0.020).Abstract P104 Figure 1Relationship of numerical rating scale (NRS) with visual analogue scale (VAS)Discussion The numerical rating scale is an intuitive tool, and our data support validity of the NRS in the assessment of chronic cough. NRS is highly associated with VAS, and has similar validity. Further larger-scale work should investigate the repeatability and responsiveness of the NRS in chronic cough.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Respiratory Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London, UK",
        "Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "KL Rhatigan"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Respiratory Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London, UK",
        "Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "EC Mackay"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Respiratory Medicine, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Australia",
        "School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith University, Southport, Australia"
      ],
      "name": "RD Turner"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Respiratory Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London, UK",
        "Immunology and Microbial Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "KJ Myall"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Respiratory Medicine, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "JH Hull"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Respiratory Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London, UK",
        "Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "SS Birring"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Respiratory Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London, UK",
        "Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK"
      ],
      "name": "PSP Cho"
    }
  ],
  "title": "P104 The validity of a cough severity numerical rating scale",
  "uid": "0eeed93d-4821-5fe8-8171-a3ae83772818"
}