Rates of hospitalization for respiratory syncytial virus infection among children in Medicaid

Risk factors for hospitalization due to respiratory syncytial virus infection among infants in the Basque Country, Spain

“…Prematurity is an underlying condition that is frequently identified in children with severe RSV infection [1][2][3][4]. The incidence of hospitalization for RSV infection in premature infants in the present series was two or three times higher than that in term infants, a finding that is in agreement with those of other studies [5,19].…”

“…It is noteworthy that most of the premature infants in the present series had no underlying diseases, providing evidence that premature infants without underlying conditions are at increased risk of developing severe RSV infection. The hospitalization rates observed in the first year of life in the present study were within the range obtained by Boyce et al in a large study that used the Medicaid database in the United States [4] (65 . 9/1000 OR, Odds ratio ; CI, confidence interval.…”

“…Like previous studies, we observed a greater risk of hospitalization among younger infants, as well as among those who were born near the beginning of the RSV season [4,[11][12][13][14]. A total of 39 % of hospitalized infants and 83% of those treated in the PICU were aged <3 months, showing the greater severity of RSV infection in younger infants.…”

“…The incidence of hospitalization in the first year of life in low birthweight infants with a gestational age of f35, 36-37 and o38 weeks was approximately twice that of infants with the same gestational age but who had a birthweight of o2500 g. Moreover, most of the infants with a gestational age of o36 weeks and low birthweight (25/28) did not present other risk factors. Few studies that have investigated the role of risk factors in severe RSV infection have considered the variable of low birthweight [4,5,7,19]. Furthermore, many studies included a large number of premature infants, a condition that is closely related with low birthweight, thus hampering independent evaluation of this factor.…”

“…In developed countries, RSV infection is the main cause of hospitalization in infants [3] and 1-4 % of children aged <1 year are hospitalized due to this infection [4][5][6]. RSV-related morbidity and mortality are higher in infants with certain underlying conditions such as prematurity, chronic bronchopulmonary disease and congenital heart disease [2,4], while less information is available on the role of other conditions or risk factors. Moreover, the proportion of infants without risk factors within the total number of severe ARIs caused by RSV in the population aged <5 years has been little studied [7].…”