Hospitalizations for diarrhea in Quebec children from 1985 to 1998: estimates of rotavirus-associated diarrhea.

OBJECTIVE

To characterize the incidence and duration of hospitalization due to diarrhea and to assess the proportion of hospitalizations that are attributed to rotavirus-associated diarrhea.

DESIGN

Retrospective study of hospitalization data.

SETTING

Hospitals located in Quebec.

POPULATION STUDIED

Children from one to 59 months of age who were discharged from hospital from April 1, 1985 to March 31, 1998.

MAIN RESULTS

There were 63,827 hospitalizations for diarrhea over the study period, for an average of 4910 hospitalizations/year. The epidemic curve showed a periodicity with regular alternation of high and low annual peaks. The number of hospitalizations for rotavirus-associated diarrhea was estimated according to three different methods. The estimates varied between 1353 and 1849 hospitalizations due to rotavirus-associated diarrhea/year over the 13-year period, with good agreement between the results of the three methods for a one-month to five years of age incidence of 320 hospitalizations for rotavirus-associated diarrhea/100,000 children. The average duration of hospital stay decreased from 5.2 days in 1985 to 3.3 days in 1998.

CONCLUSIONS

The present article shows the importance of diarrhea hospitalizations among children and the alternating peak-year periodicity.