This is an observational study comparing a history of cough with a digital audio record over 24 hours for Indigenous children (aged <14 years) admitted to Royal Darwin Hospital. Cough is the most common symptom of respiratory disease. Thus reliable reporting of cough as a symptom is important in clinical practice. However, there is no information on the accuracy of reporting of cough in Indigenous children. This study will help us understand the reliability of cough reported by Indigenous people to doctors and other health care workers. This has significant clinical implications as decision making is often based on history and limited objective observation. This study will define the sensitivity and specificity of aspects of a cough history and inform clinical practice.

Objectives: To determine how reliable a 24-hour history of cough taken from the accompanying carers of Indigenous children is, as well as to examine how valid a history of wet cough is in Indigenous children. This will be done by a comparison between a subjective measurement of cough 9 a cough history taken from an accompanying carer) versus an objective measure of cough (cough recording device).

Research questions:
1. How reliable is the history of cough (over 24-hours) taken from the accompanying carer of Indigenous children admitted to hospital?
2. How does an Indigenous care’s evaluation of cough character (wet/dry) compare to a clinician’s?