This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Birth month affected RSV hospitalization risk
The risk for respiratory syncytial virus hospitalization was affected by birth month and age at admission within the first year of life, according to recent study findings published in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
Patricia Calderón Lloyd, ScM, of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics of George Washington University, and colleagues evaluated 82,296 RSV-related infant hospitalizations from State Inpatient Databases in Arizona, Iowa, New York, Oregon and Wisconsin between July 1996 and June 2006. The researchers conducted the study to determine whether birth month was a risk factor for RSV hospitalizations. Forty-two percent of patients were female and 73% were aged 6 months or younger.
Nearly 4% of patients hospitalized for RSV also had a condition known to increase RSV hospitalization risk, including bronchopulmonary dysplasia; congenital heart disease; cystic fibrosis; tracheoesophageal fistula; and congenital anomalies of the respiratory tract.
There was a significantly higher risk for RSV-confirmed hospitalizations for patients aged 1 month born between November and March compared with patients younger than 1 month born in October. There was a significantly increased risk of hospitalization for patients aged 1 month born between November and February compared with patients younger than 1 month born in October. There also was a significantly increased risk for RSV-confirmed hospitalization for patients aged 2 months born in November and December compared with patients aged 2 months born in October.
Patients aged 3 to 5 months born in September and October were more likely to be hospitalized than patients aged 3 to 5 months born in any other month.
Among all states, patients born in January and December were two to three times at increased risk for hospitalization during their first year life compared with infants born in July. However, more patients in Iowa had RSV-confirmed hospitalizations regardless of birth month.
“While we observed more 2-month-olds discharged from the hospital due to RSV than any other age-group, we also note that the risk of RSV-confirmed hospitalization for 1-month olds born between November and March, compared with other 1-month olds born in October, was higher than any other age group,” the researchers wrote. “That birth month affects an infant’s risk of RSV confirmed hospitalization during his/her entire first year of life is an important finding as it suggests that specific cohorts of children are more vulnerable to hospitalization through infancy than others.”
This study supports previous research that birth month is associated with increased risk for RSV-confirmed hospitalization.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
