Acute Respiratory Tract Infections in Children

Abstract

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in small children account for a considerable proportion of health care expenditure. In 113 children, followed for the first three years of life, we studied the frequency of acute RTI and its relationship to the factors: type of day-care, age, sex, family size, living conditions, allergic predisposition, family smoking habits, and season. To elucidate the influence of age, the frequency of acute RTI and its relationship to type of day-care was longitudinally studied on a quarterly basis. The frequency of acute RTI diagnosis increased gradually from birth culminating in a peak at the beginning of the second year. Besides age and season, type of day-care was the only factor studied to show any relationship with the frequency of acute RTI diagnosis. Up to the age of almost 2 1/2 years, children attending day-care centres accounted for more RTI diagnoses than did those in home care or family day-care, categories with comparable frequencies.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled noninferiority trial of amoxicillin for clinically diagnosed acute otitis media in children 6 months to 5 years of age

“…15 Other reports for children under 2 years of age have also documented failure rates of 15% despite treatment with antimicrobials. 9,34,35 In the current study, children between 2 and 5 years of age had higher clinical resolution rates (87.2% and 96.9%) with larger absolute differences (9.7%) between placebo and amoxicillin, which may reflect a higher degree of certainty in diagnosis of bacterial acute otitis media in this age group. Another placebo-controlled trial reported a 5% absolute difference among children over 2 years of age and a 3.3% difference among those under 2 years of age.…”

Higher risk for acute childhood lymphoblastic leukaemia in Swedish population centres 1973-94

“…The highest proportion is found in densely populated areas. Viral infections have been shown to be more common in children with regular attendance in day-care centres in Sweden and other countries (Strangert, 1976;Anderson et al, 1988;Petersson and Hakanson, 1989;Harsten et al, 1990). A difference in hospital admission in urban and rural areas for respiratory tract infections in children has been shown in Denmark (Moltesen and Hjuler, 1991).…”

Persistence of upper respiratory tract infections in a cohort followed from childhood to adulthood

“…Recurrent infections of the upper respiratory tract (rURTI [2][3][4] were defined as at least four 3-monthly episodes with an ear infection and/ or throat infections and/or at least six episodes with a severe common cold. Recurrent infections of the upper respiratory tract between ages 4 and 8 years (rURTI [4][5][6][7][8] were defined as the occurrence of four or more ear infections and/or four or more throat infections and/ or six or more severe common colds.…”

“…[1][2][3] These infections not only have an impact on children's health and well-being, but also generate high medical costs and indirect costs for the family and the society. 4,5 Children experience, on average, 4-6 URTIs per year.…”

“…Little is known, however, about its persistence through adolescence since most of these studies have focused on the period between 0 and 6 years of life and follow-up was restricted to a few years. 1,2,7 For example, it is unknown whether recurrent URTIs (rURTIs) experienced in early life tend to persist through adolescence and whether rURTIs in adulthood are related to recurrent infections earlier in life.…”