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TUESDAY, Aug. 25, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Nighttime coughing, measured via a smartphone app, may indicate worse asthma control, according to a study presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress 2020, to be held virtually from Sept. 7 to 9.<\/p>\n
Frank Rassouli, P.D. Dr.Med., from Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen in Switzerland, and colleagues developed machine learning models for nocturnal cough detection. Ninety-four patients were recruited from two centers, with a study duration of 29 days per patient. In-person appointments occurred on the first and last study days, and patient-reported outcomes and nocturnal sensor data were collected by smartphone in between. A weekly Asthma Control Test (ACT) was used to assess asthma control.<\/p>\n
The researchers observed an association between weekly aggregated measurements of nocturnal cough and asthma control of the same and the subsequent week in the mixed-effect model. An increase of 100 coughs per week was associated with a 0.56-point and 0.25-point decrease in ACT for the same week and the following week, respectively.<\/p>\n
“Our results suggest that nighttime coughing can be measured fairly simply with a smartphone app and that an increase in coughing at night is an indicator that asthma is deteriorating,” Rassouli said in a statement. “Monitoring asthma is really important because if we can spot early signs that it’s getting worse, we can adjust medication to prevent asthma attacks.”<\/p>\n
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