Document Type : Research Article
Authors
1
General Practitioner ,Medical School,Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon Branch, Tonekabon, Iran.
2
Ear, Nose and Throat Department, Faculty of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon Branch, Tonekabon, Iran
3
Lecturer of Internal Medicine Department, medical school, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon Branch,Tonekabon, Iran
Abstract
Background: Cough is a defense mechanism to ward off foreign bodies that suddenly enter the airways, and clean the natural secretion, remove particles in the inhaled air. Cough in adults could be divided into three groups based on duration. Up to three weeks as Acute, between 3 and 8 weeks as prolonged and more than 8 weeks is considered as chronic cough. According to the high fequency of patients with this complaint in Mazandaran, the purpose of this study is investigating causes of chronic cough in patients that referred to the clinic of ENT of Tonekabon Shahid Rejaei hospital between 2013 and 2014.
Methods: In the current descriptive cross-sectional study 100 patients were interviewed who referred to the specialized clinic of ENT; Tonekabon Shahid Rajaei hospital, using random sampling. Variables including type of disease, age, gender, occupation, place of residence, and smoking were analyzed with the help of SPSS software and chi-square tests.
Result: Of the 100 people that were studied in the sample, 52% were female. 39% of respondents aged over 60 years. A noticeable percentage of patients (41%) were unemployed and 75% were urban residents. In addition, 72% of the participants’ answers to the consumption of tobacco were negative. Chronic pneumonia (P=0/003), gastroesophageal reflux (P=0/001), and COPD (P=0/001) were significantly correlated with the age variable. There was no relationship between disease and job, and smoking was the only variable that had statistically significant relationship with COPD (P=0/0001). Most people with pneumonia were rural residents (P=0/016).
Conclusion: In accordance with the results, gastroesophageal reflux, asthma and COPD are the leading cause of chronic cough among visitors (73%). It is necessary to study the causes of chronic cough in other cities in the country in order to examine all of the factors affecting chronic cough in large scale.
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