From the Department of Pediatrics, Hallym University College of Medicine, Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2021 Oct 1;40(10):885-891. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000003190.
Studies evaluating the epidemiology of pediatric meningitis are limited in our region. This study aimed to describe recent trends in the incidence of pediatric meningitis.
We estimated national trends in hospitalization rates for pediatric meningitis (<18 years) by analyzing data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment database between 2010 and 2018. Meningitis cases were identified based on International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes and hospitalization rates were calculated.
In this national population-based study, a total of 119,644 hospitalizations and 58 deaths due to pediatric meningitis were identified. The hospitalization rates of pediatric bacterial meningitis have declined by 50.0%, from 3.4 per 100,000 in 2010 to 1.7 per 100,000 in 2018. The mortality rates for bacterial and viral meningitis were 2.0% and 0.002%, respectively. Despite the decreased annual incidence of bacterial meningitis, its mortality rate did not change significantly during the study period. The only risk factor identified for mortality in bacterial meningitis patients among age group, sex, region of residence, and season was age below 1 year (P < 0.001). As children under 1 year have a high-mortality rate (4.2%), patients in this age group require close monitoring. The reasons behind indistinct seasonal patterns of bacterial meningitis warrant further investigation.
Childhood bacterial meningitis has shown a significant decline in incidence from 2010 to 2018. In contrast, viral meningitis has not shown a trend over time. Knowledge of these changes may aid clinicians in the decision-making process and management of meningitis patients.
在我们所在地区，评估小儿脑膜炎流行病学的研究有限。本研究旨在描述小儿脑膜炎发病率的近期趋势。
我们通过分析 2010 年至 2018 年健康保险审查和评估数据库中的数据，估算了小儿脑膜炎（<18 岁）住院率的全国趋势。根据国际疾病分类，第 10 次修订版（ICD-10）编码识别脑膜炎病例，并计算住院率。
在这项全国性基于人群的研究中，共确定了 119644 例因小儿脑膜炎住院和 58 例死亡病例。小儿细菌性脑膜炎的住院率下降了 50.0%，从 2010 年的每 10 万人 3.4 例降至 2018 年的每 10 万人 1.7 例。细菌性和病毒性脑膜炎的死亡率分别为 2.0%和 0.002%。尽管细菌性脑膜炎的年发病率有所下降，但在研究期间其死亡率没有显著变化。在细菌性脑膜炎患者中，年龄<1 岁是唯一确定的与死亡相关的危险因素（P<0.001），而年龄、性别、居住地和季节等其他因素则与死亡率无关。由于 1 岁以下儿童的死亡率较高（4.2%），因此该年龄组的患者需要密切监测。细菌性脑膜炎无明显季节性模式的原因需要进一步调查。
2010 年至 2018 年，儿童细菌性脑膜炎的发病率显著下降。相比之下，病毒性脑膜炎的发病率没有随时间变化。了解这些变化可能有助于临床医生在决策过程和脑膜炎患者管理方面做出决策。
