Acute coughs cost UK £979m
People with coughs costing nearly UK economy nearly £1 billion
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Wednesday, 30, Aug 2006 02:34
Acute coughs cost the UK economy almost £1 billion every year, according to medical experts.
The British Thoracic Society (BTS) has issued guidance which states that £979 million is lost each year to acute cough, made up of £875 million in lost productivity and £104 million in healthcare costs.
However the BTS has called for more accurate estimates to be made as "the economic burden of acute cough in the UK is not well characterised".
Six factors are thought to contribute to the total UK cost, including on-the-job productivity reduction, absenteeism from work and physician consultation loss.
The figures are included in the guidance issued in the Thorax journal, and are published in response to what the BTS believes is a need for "concise recommendations".
"International differences in delivery of respiratory health care and management strategies support the notion that such guidelines would be desirable," the report's authors write.
The task group set up by the BTS to produce the guidelines agreed to define an acute cough as one lasting less than three weeks, and chronic cough as lasting for more than eight weeks.
It added that although patients report benefits from cough medicines sold over-the-counter, "there is little evidence of a specific pharmacological effect".
The executive committee of the guideline group will meet every two years to review any new evidence and to formulate clinical and research priorities.