Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting
Date Submitted: Aug 24, 2025
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 23, 2025 - Oct 18, 2025
Date Accepted: Nov 27, 2025
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Analysis of Cough Factors and Quality of Life Score among Children with Protracted Bacterial Bronchitis: Cross-Sectional Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Protracted bacterial bronchitis (PBB) is a leading cause of chronic wet cough in children. Misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment may lead to the progression of diseases.
Objective:
To analyze factors influencing cough duration and assess health-related quality of life in children with PBB.
Methods:
Children diagnosed with PBB in the Qilu Hospital of Shandong University from November 2021 to November 2022 were included in this study. Clinical data were collected, parents completed the parent-proxy Cough-Specific Quality of Life (PC-QOL) questionnaire and the Cough Symptom Score (CSS). Children aged 6 years and older completed the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ).
Results:
A total of 88 patients’ information was collected. Rural residence, low parental education, inadequate rest during illness, and parents' misjudgment of the nature of cough are significant factors prolonging the duration of cough in PBB patients (all p < .05). PC-QOL scores (physical: 3.10±1.36, psychological: 3.32±1.57, social: 3.67±1.53, total: 10.09±4.21) showed physical-social differences (t=-2.576, p =.01). PC-QOL post-treatment scores were significantly higher than pre-treatment scores (all p < .001). However, the scores of each PC-QOL domain were significantly lower than those of the LCQ.
Conclusions:
Social and environmental factors, along with caregiving factors, play a critical role in influencing the duration of PBB cough. Furthermore, PBB significantly reduces quality of life in physical, psychological, and social aspects.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.