Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Sep 29;22(1):759.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07745-0.

Clinical and economic burden of respiratory syncytial virus in Spanish children: the BARI study

F Martinón-Torres  1   2   3 , M Carmo  4 , L Platero  5 , G Drago  6 , J L López-Belmonte  6 , M Bangert  7 , J Díez-Domingo  8 , M Garcés-Sánchez  9
Affiliations

Clinical and economic burden of respiratory syncytial virus in Spanish children: the BARI study

F Martinón-Torres et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is a major cause of morbidity in children. However, its disease burden remains poorly understood, particularly outside of the hospital setting. Our study aimed to estimate the burden of medically attended acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) cases potentially related to RSV in Spanish children. Longitudinal data from September 2017 to June 2018 of 51,292 children aged < 5 years old from the National Healthcare System (NHS) of two Spanish regions were used. Three case definitions were considered: (a) RSV-specific; (b) RSV-specific and unspecified acute bronchiolitis (RSV-specific and Bronchiolitis), and; (c) RSV-specific and unspecified ALRI (RSV-specific and ALRI). A total of 3460 medically attended ALRI cases potentially due to RSV were identified, of which 257 (7.4%), 164 (4.7%), and 3039 (87.8%) coded with RSV-specific, unspecific bronchiolitis, and unspecific ALRI codes, respectively. Medically attended RSV-specific and ALRI cases per 1000 children was 134.4 in the first year of life, 119.4 in the second, and 35.3 between 2 and 5 years old. Most cases were observed in otherwise healthy children (93.1%). Mean direct healthcare cost per medically attended RSV-specific and ALRI case was €1753 in the first year of life, €896 in the second, and €683 between 2 and 5 years old. Hospitalization was the main driver of these costs, accounting for 55.6%, 38.0% and 33.4%, in each respective age group. In RSV-specific cases, mean direct healthcare cost per medically attended case was higher, mostly due to hospitalization: €3362 in the first year of life (72.9% from hospitalizations), €3252 in the second (72.1%), and €3514 between 2 and 5 years old (74.2%). These findings suggest that hospitalization data alone will underestimate the RSV infections requiring medical care, as will relying only on RSV-specific codes. RSV testing and codification must be improved and preventive solutions adopted, to protect all infants, particularly during the first year of life.

Keywords: Acute lower respiratory infection; Bronchiolitis; Burden; Children; Epidemiology; Respiratory syncytial virus.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Platero L, Drago G, López-Belmonte JL and Bangert M are Sanofi employees and may hold shares and/or stock options in the company. Carmo M is an IQVIA employee. Martinón Torres F and Díez-Domingo J have received fees from Sanofi. F.M-T. received honoraria from GSK group of companies, Pfizer Inc, Sanofi Pasteur, MSD, Seqirus, and Janssen for taking part in advisory boards and expert meetings and for acting as a speaker in congresses outside the scope of the submitted work. FM-T has also acted as principal investigator in randomized controlled trials of the above-mentioned companies as well as Ablynx, Gilead, Regeneron, Roche, Abbott, Novavax, and MedImmune, with honoraria paid to his institution. F.M-T has received support for the present work from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Proyecto de Investigación en Salud, Acción Estratégica en Salud): Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS; PI070069/PI1000540/PI1601569/PI1901090) del plan nacional de I + D + I and ‘fondos FEDER’ and Proyectos GaIN Rescata-Covid_IN845D 2020/23 (GAIN, Xunta de Galicia). Garcés-Sánchez M received honoraria from GSK, Pfizer Inc, Sanofi and MSD for taking part in advisory boards and expert meetings and for acting as a speaker in congresses outside the scope of the submitted work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Details of the database used in the study
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean healthcare cost per RSV-specific and ALRI case aged bellow one year old
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bont L, Checchia PA, Fauroux B, Figueras-Aloy J, Manzoni P, Paes B, Simões EA, Carbonell-Estrany X. Defining the epidemiology and burden of severe respiratory syncytial virus infection among infants and children in western countries. Infect Dis therapy. 2016;5(3):271–98. doi: 10.1007/s40121-016-0123-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hodgson D, Pebody R, Panovska-Griffiths J, Baguelin M, Atkins KE. Evaluating the next generation of RSV intervention strategies: a mathematical modelling study and cost-effectiveness analysis. BMC Med. 2020;18(1):348. doi: 10.1186/s12916-020-01802-8. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Li Y, Wang X, Blau DM, Caballero MT, Feikin DR, Gill CJ, Madhi SA, Omer SB, Simões EAF, Campbell H, et al. Global, regional, and national disease burden estimates of acute lower respiratory infections due to respiratory syncytial virus in children younger than 5 years in 2019: a systematic analysis. The Lancet. 2022;399(10340):2047–64. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00478-0. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stein RT, Bont LJ, Zar H, Polack FP, Park C, Claxton A, Borok G, Butylkova Y, Wegzyn C. Respiratory syncytial virus hospitalization and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis. Pediatr Pulmonol. 2017;52(4):556–69. doi: 10.1002/ppul.23570. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Díez-Domingo J, Pérez-Yarza EG, Melero JA, Sánchez-Luna M, Aguilar MD, Blasco AJ, Alfaro N, Lázaro P. Social, economic, and health impact of the respiratory syncytial virus: a systematic search. BMC Infect Dis. 2014;14:544–4. doi: 10.1186/s12879-014-0544-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Supplementary concepts