Background: Chronic cough lasting for more than 8 weeks is a distressing condition that burdens patients. Some patients have chronic cough that persists despite treatments for its underlying diseases (refractory chronic cough; RCC) or a chronic cough of unknown origin (unexplained chronic cough; UCC). The aim of this study is to describe the burden of patients with RCC and UCC using two types of qualitative surveys.

Methods: Focus group interviews with graphic recording with 20 RCC/UCC patients and online individual interviews with another 21 RCC/UCC patients were conducted with the same semi-structured interview guide.

Results: Focus group interviews highlighted 1) mental/social, physical, and economic burdens, 2) impacts on work, hobbies and leisure, and 3) sleep-related problems, in the participants. During the group interviews, graphic images visualized the patients? burdens, reflecting the responses of the participants. In the individual interviews, the closed coding analysis demonstrated that the situations and types of cough-related burdens mentioned were ranked in order as emotion, working style, acquaintanceship, hobbies and leisure, and sleep patterns. In both studies, the participants were frequently concerned how other people around them would feel and respond to their coughing especially in public places under this pandemic situation.

Conclusion: These studies demonstrated the disease burden of RCC/UCC patients in Japan and suggested that the disease awareness improvement in the society would potentially relieve the disease burdens in RCC/UCC patients.