Cough is a common symptom of respiratory diseases and facilitates the removal of respiratory secretions and harmful factors, but frequent and severe coughing can have a serious impact on patients’ work, life and social activities. Many patients are misdiagnosed as “chronic bronchitis” or “bronchiectasis” for a long time, and a large number of patients are treated with antibacterial medications that are ineffective or are not effective. Many patients are misdiagnosed as “chronic bronchitis” or “bronchiectasis” for a long time and are treated ineffectively with a large number of antibacterial drugs or undergo repeated tests due to unclear diagnosis, which not only increases patients’ pain but also aggravates their economic burden. With the increasing concern about cough, the causes of cough and its treatment have been studied in Europe and the United States in the past 20 years, and the common causes of chronic cough have been clarified, and guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of cough have been developed in recent years. In recent years, clinical studies on the diagnosis and treatment of the causes of cough have also been conducted in China, and preliminary results have been obtained. In order to further standardize the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic cough in China and to strengthen clinical and basic research on cough, the Asthma Group of the Chinese Medical Association’s Division of Respiratory Diseases organized relevant experts to develop a draft guideline on the diagnosis and treatment of cough, taking into account the results of domestic and foreign clinical studies on cough, with a view to providing scientific diagnosis and effective treatment for different types of cough. Classification and causes of cough Cough is usually divided into 3 categories according to time: acute cough, subacute cough and chronic cough. Duration of acute cough