National chronic respiratory disease mortality study: II. Mortality associated with persistent cough and phlegm in the United States, 1963

Abstract

Based on the prevalence at death of chronic respiratory disease diagnoses, this study suggested in a previous report that these diseases contribute far more to U.S. mortality than published mortality statistics suggest. The present report confirms this finding using mortality rates associated with the symptoms, peristent cough and phlegm. These symptoms are found to correlate highly with the more severe forms of CRD diagnoses. The associated mortality rates for cough and phlegm were more than six times the CRD underlying cause death rates for females, whereas for males, they were not quite twice as large. The associated mortality rates for males, however, are more susceptible to possible differences between decedents with symptom status known and those with status unknown.