Wesfarmers Centre for Vaccines and Infectious Diseases, Telethon Kids Institute, West Perth, Western Australia, Australia.
Department of Health, Population Health Services, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2019 Jan;13(1):18-27. doi: 10.1111/irv.12604. Epub 2018 Sep 11.
Influenza is a major cause of respiratory illness in young children. Assessing the impact of infection on children and the community is required to guide immunisation policies.
To describe the impact of laboratory-proven influenza in young children and to compare its impact with that of other respiratory viruses on the child, their family and the health care system.
Preschool children presenting for care or admission to a tertiary paediatric hospital during the 2008-2014 influenza seasons were tested for respiratory virus by polymerase chain reaction and culture. Parental surveys were used to determine the impact of infection on illness duration, medication use, absenteeism and health service utilisation. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess the impact of influenza and to evaluate the association between influenza status and outcomes.
Among 1191 children assessed, 238 had influenza. Among children with influenza, 87.8% were administered antipyretics and 40.9% antibiotics. 28.6% had secondary complications. 65.4% of children missed school/day care, and 53.4% of parents missed work. When influenza and other viruses were compared, significant differences were noted including duration of illness (influenza: 9.54 days, other viruses: 8.50 days; P = 0.005) and duration of absenteeism for both the child (23.1 vs 17.3 hours; P = 0.015) and their parents (28.5 vs 22.7 hours; P = 0.012).
Influenza infection in young children has a significant impact on medication use, absenteeism and the use of health care service. Significant differences are identified when compared with other ILI. These data demonstrate that influenza prevention strategies including immunisation are likely to have wide and significant impacts.
流感是导致幼儿呼吸道疾病的主要原因。为了指导免疫政策，需要评估感染对儿童和社区的影响。
描述实验室确诊的流感对幼儿的影响，并比较其对儿童、其家庭和医疗保健系统的影响与其他呼吸道病毒的影响。
对 2008 年至 2014 年流感季节在三级儿科医院就诊或住院的学龄前儿童进行呼吸道病毒聚合酶链反应和培养检测。通过父母调查确定感染对疾病持续时间、药物使用、缺勤和卫生服务利用的影响。采用多变量回归分析评估流感的影响，并评估流感状态与结局之间的关联。
在评估的 1191 名儿童中，238 名患有流感。在患有流感的儿童中，87.8%使用了退烧药，40.9%使用了抗生素。28.6%出现了继发并发症。65.4%的儿童缺课/缺勤，53.4%的家长缺勤。当流感和其他病毒进行比较时，注意到了显著差异，包括疾病持续时间（流感：9.54 天，其他病毒：8.50 天；P=0.005）和儿童（23.1 小时对 17.3 小时；P=0.015）和其家长（28.5 小时对 22.7 小时；P=0.012）的缺勤时间。
流感感染对幼儿的药物使用、缺勤和卫生保健服务的利用有重大影响。与其他 ILI 相比，发现了显著差异。这些数据表明，包括免疫接种在内的流感预防策略可能具有广泛而重大的影响。
