## 3 Results  
A total of 89 children aged 27 to 193 months were recruited in each cohort, as shown in Figure 2. The 89 children in the asthmatic cohort produced a total of 1,192 cough sounds, of which 726 were used for training and 466 were used for testing. A total of 1,140 cough sounds were produced by 89 children in the normal-voluntary cohort, 756 were used for training and 384 were used for testing. Eight to 15 coughs were produced by each child. In the asthmatic cohort, 53 children from Children Emergency and 36 children from Respiratory Ward were recruited. Children from the Respiratory Ward had significantly longer mean duration of cough of 5.22 (3.28) days versus 2.92 (3.02) days (\(p=0.003\)) for children from the Children's Emergency. Significantly more children from the Children's Emergency had history of asthma, compared to those in the Respiratory Ward (\(p=0.023\)). Figure 2: Subject recruitment, enrolment, cohort creation, and data processing flow diagram. The demographic characteristics of the study population is summarized in Table 1.  
The clinical characteristics of the testing and training groups for both the asthmatic cohorts and the normal-voluntary and are summarized in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. The clinical characteristics of the study population in the asthmatic cohort. The clinical characteristics of the testing and training groups for both the asthmatic cohorts and the normal-voluntary and are summarized in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Asthmatic Cohort, N = 89**} \\ \hline  & **Training Group** & **Testing Group** & \(p\)**-Value** \\  & **N = 65** & **N = 24** & \(p\)**-Value** \\ \hline
**Demographics Characteristics** & & & \\ Age (months)—mean (SD) & 104.75(37.97) & 94.92(30.57) & 0.091 * \\ Sex (Male:Female) & 41:24 & 19:5 & 0.205 \\ Race (Malay:Chinese:Indian:Others) & 33:17:11:4 & 11:7:3:3 & 0.738 \\ Weight (kg)—mean (SD) & 32.29(15.17) & 32.65(16.47) & 0.963 * \\ Duration of cough at presentation (days)—mean (SD) & 3.54(3.96) & 4.86(4.91) & 0.364 * \\ \hline
**Past Medical History, N** & & & 0.476 * \\ None & 13 & 3 & \\ Asthma & 43 & 19 & \\ allergic rhinitis & 9 & 6 & \\ Recurrent wheeze & 7 & 1 & \\ \hline
**Clinical Parameters at** & & & \\
**Presentation of Cough** & & & \\ Shortness of breath (Yes:No) & 37:23 & 15:7 & 0.231 \\ Tmax (\({}^{\circ}\)C): mean (SD) & 37.26(0.48) & 37.03(0.50) & 0.016 * \\ Respiratory rate/min—mean (SD) & 27.57(5.59) & 28.92(6.82) & 0.400 * \\ Heart rate/min—mean (SD) & 117.38(20.90) & 112.08(17.55) & 0.273 * \\ \hline
**Auscultation at Presentation of** & & & \\
**Cough, N** & & & 0.189 \\ No added sounds & 16 & 4 & \\ Rhonchi/wheeze & 44 & 14 & \\ Crepitation & 2 & 1 & \\ Rhonchi/wheeze and Crepitation & 3 & 5 & \\ \hline
**Chest Radiography Performed, N** & & & 0.600 \\ Not done & 52 & 18 & \\ Done, negative finding & 6 & 4 & \\ Done, positive finding & 7 & 2 & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Definition of abbreviations: Tmax—maximum temperature; NA—not applicable.
* Independent \(T\)-test, Population numbers (N) in the Past Medical History might include children with more than one medical condition.
* Mann-Whitney \(U\) test.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Clinical characteristics of the study population. * Independent \(T\)-test, * Mann-Whitney \(U\) test. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline  & **Normal–Voluntary** & **Asthmatic** & \\
* Weight (kg)—mean (SD) & 33.74(15.39) & 32.39(15.43) & 0.457
* \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* The clinical characteristics of the testing and training groups for both the asthmatic cohorts and the normal–voluntary and are summarized in Tables 2 and 3, respectively.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Clinical characteristics of the study population in the asthmatic cohort. The results on classification accuracy (Tippett plots and ROC analysis) are presented in Table 4, while the corresponding Tippett plots are shown in Figure 3.