Question

Discuss the assessment of cough in older adults

Answer 1

Assessment of cough in older adults

1. A thorough history collection including present and past health history is needed to recognize cough
2. Identify the properties of cough like
   • Duration of cough (days, weeks)
   • Course of cough (intermittent, diurnal variation, worsening, constant)
   • Triggering factors like irritants, allergens, certain positions. Sometimes swallowing also triggers cough)
   • Dry/ productive cough ( means cough with secretions, purulent, coloured discharge)
   • Other :- associated factors with cough like shortness of breath, cyanosis, weight loss, clubbing, chest pain, wheeze etc
3. It can be also assess using cough visual analogue scale (VAS)
4. VAS is a simple instrument using 100mm linear scale in which patient indicates the severity of the cough between two extremes (0-100)