Various hypothesis suggest that some children with recurrent cough without a wheeze have a mild form of asthma, also known as cough variant asthma. These children have similar risk factors and an increased risk of future wheeze.

The present longitudinal study contrasted risk factors for isolated night cough and for wheeze in children aged 1, 4, 6 and 9 years. In addition, prognosis of children with isolated night cough, was compared with children with wheeze and asymptomatic children.

The study included 4101 children aged 1 year, 2854 aged 4 years, 2369 aged 6 years and 1688 aged 9 years. The outcome revealed that prevalence of isolated night cough was 10% at age 1 year and 18% in older children while prevalence of wheeze reduced from 35% at 1 year to 13% at 9 years. The researchers found similar multiple risk factors for cough and wheeze, however, day care, reflux and family history of bronchitis were more significantly related to cough, while male sex and family history of asthma were closely associated with wheeze. Although over one-third of preschool children with cough persisted coughing at school age, their risk of developing wheeze was comparable to that of children who were asymptomatic at earlier evaluation. iT was observed that wheeze tracked more intensely throughout childhood in comparison to cough.

Thus, the study concluded that few risk factors are similar for cough and wheeze, and observations suggest that there is very low probability for an increased risk of future wheeze in children with isolated night cough. Thus, it can be postulated that recurrent cough without wheeze is suggestive of a variant form of asthma.

Source: ERJ Open Res. 2020 Oct 13;6(4):00217-2020.