Journal article
Age-specific estimates of respiratory syncytial virus-associated hospitalizations in 6 European countries: a time series analysis
- Abstract:
-
Background
Knowledge on age-specific hospitalizations associated with RSV infection is limited due to limited testing, especially in older children and adults in whom RSV infections are not expected to be severe. Burden estimates based on RSV coding of hospital admissions are known to underestimate the burden of RSV. We aimed to provide robust and reliable age-specific burden estimates of RSV-associated hospital admissions based on data on respiratory infections from national health registers and laboratory-confirmed cases of RSV.
Methods
We conducted multiseason regression analysis of weekly hospitalizations with respiratory infection and weekly laboratory-confirmed cases of RSV and influenza as covariates, based on national health registers and laboratory databases across 6 European countries. The burden of RSV-associated hospitalizations was estimated by age group, clinical diagnosis, and presence of underlying medical conditions.
Results
Across the 6 European countries, hospitalizations of children with respiratory infections were clearly associated with RSV, with associated proportions ranging from 28% to 60% in children younger than 3 months and we found substantial proportions of admissions to hospital with respiratory infections associated with RSV in children younger than 3 years. Associated proportions were highest among hospitalizations with ICD-10 codes of “bronchitis and bronchiolitis.” In all 6 countries, annual incidence of RSV-associated hospitalizations was >40 per 1000 persons in the age group 0–2 months. In age group 1–2 years the incidence rate ranged from 1.3 to 10.5 hospitalizations per 1000. Adults older than 85 years had hospitalizations with respiratory infection associated to RSV in all 6 countries although incidence rates were low.
Conclusions
Our findings highlight the substantial proportion of RSV infections among hospital admissions across different ages and may help public health professionals and policy makers when planning prevention and control strategies. In addition, our findings provide valuable insights for health care professionals attending to both children and adults presenting with symptoms of viral respiratory infections.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 176.3KB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/infdis/jiac150
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- The Journal of Infectious Diseases More from this journal
- Volume:
- 226
- Issue:
- Suppl 1
- Pages:
- S29-S37
- Place of publication:
- United States
- Publication date:
- 2022-06-24
- Acceptance date:
- 2022-04-19
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1537-6613
- ISSN:
-
0022-1899
- Pmid:
-
35748871
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
1352687
- Local pid:
-
pubs:1352687
- Deposit date:
-
2023-07-06
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Johannesen et al
- Copyright date:
- 2022
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: [email protected] This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
- Notes:
- This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available from Oxford University Press at: 10.1093/infdis/jiac150
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record