Management of acute cough

Introduction: Cough is one of the main causes of demand for care in primary care, as it affects the patient’s quality of life. An acute cough is considered a self-limiting problem because it is of low severity and has a short latency period. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of clinical guidelines (CGs) for the treatment of acute cough. Methods: Searches were carried out on the websites of national and international institutions and organizations using the descriptors “cough,” “tos,” “practice guideline,” “guideline,” and “guide of clinical practice.” The selected guidelines were evaluated by four reviewers using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument, and then, they were classified as strongly recommended, recommended with modifications, and non-recommended. Results: A total of 11 international guidelines were selected, published between 2006 and 2019, most from the United States of America. A total of seven guidelines were specific to the treatment of acute cough, only one guideline was focused on pharmaceutical care, and six were focused on the treatment of adults and children. Scope and purpose were the domains that presented the best score; editorial independence (D6) had the highest score variation (0–98%); and applicability (D5) of guidelines had the lowest mean score, 46% (range 2–88%). Regarding interventions, most of the guidelines referred to pharmacological interventions as unnecessary and the most cited non-pharmacological intervention was menthol (ointment). Conclusions: Therefore, it is necessary to carry out more clinical studies of good quality so that the CGs can be revised, to make the recommendations more reliable.