Long-term assessment of healthcare utilization 5 years after respiratory syncytial virus infection in US infants

Abstract

Background. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the primary cause of respiratory tract infections in infants; however, current burden estimates report only the short-term effects of acute infection. Methods. Infants with RSV infection and ≥24 months of continuous enrollment were retrospectively identified from the Truven MarketScan database (1 January 2004-30 September 2015). Exposed infants (n = 38 473) were propensity score matched to nonexposed controls (n = 76 825) by baseline characteristics and gestational age. Five-year cumulative all-cause, asthma/wheezing, and respiratory event-related hospitalization rates and physician and emergency department healthcare-resource utilization rates were assessed. Results. During follow-up, RSV-infected cohorts had higher average all-cause cumulative hospitalization rates, compared with controls, with values of 79.9 hospitalizations/100 patient-years (95% confidence interval [CI], 41.7-118.2) for 213 early premature infants (P