Incidence of acute otitis media in children in the United States before and after the introduction of 7- and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccines during 1998–2018

Abstract

Background Acute otitis media (AOM) is a leading cause of office visits and antibiotic prescriptions in children. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines were introduced in the USA in 2000 (7-valent, PCV7) and 2010 (13-valent, PCV13). Expanded valency PCVs are currently under development. To describe the impact of PCVs and quantify the residual burden of AOM, this study estimated annual incidence rates (IRs) of AOM and AOM-related complications and surgical procedures in children < 18 years in the USA before and after the introduction of PCV7 and PCV13. Methods AOM episodes were identified in the IBM MarketScan® Commercial and Medicaid databases using diagnosis codes (ICD-9-CM: 382.x; ICD-10-CM: H66.xx and H67.xx). Annual IRs were calculated as the number of episodes per 1000 person-years (PYs) for all children < 18 years and by age group (< 2, 2–4, and 5–17 years). National estimates of annual AOM IRs were extrapolated using Census Bureau data. Interrupted time series analyses were used to assess immediate and gradual changes in monthly AOM IRs, controlling for seasonality. Results In the commercially insured population, AOM IRs declined between the pre-PCV7 period (1998–1999) and the late PCV13 period (2014–2018) from 1170.1 to 768.8 episodes per 1000 PY for children < 2 years, from 547.4 to 410.3 episodes per 1000 PY in children 2–4 years, and from 115.6 to 91.8 episodes per 1000 PY in children 5–17 years. The interrupted time series analyses indicated significant immediate or gradual decreases in the early PCV7 period (2001–2005), and gradual increases in the late PCV7 period (2006–2009) in children < 2 years; however, crude IRs trended downward in all time periods. In older children, IRs decreased in the early PCV7 and early PCV13 period (2011–2013), but gradually increased in the late PCV7 period. IRs of AOM-related surgical procedures decreased, and IRs of AOM-related complications increased during the study timeframe. Conclusions AOM disease burden remains high in children of all ages despite overall reductions in AOM IRs during 1998–2018 following the introduction of PCV7 and PCV13. The impact of investigational PCVs on the disease burden of AOM will likely depend on AOM etiology and circulating pneumococcal serotypes.

Strengths and weaknesses of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines

“…Overall, these studies support partial impact of PCV vaccination in OM and highlight variability of efficaciousness depending on AOM etiology and circulating pneumococcal serotypes [ 70 , 71 ].…”

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Routine Use of 15-Valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in the US Pediatric Population

“…The age-specific incidence rates of all-cause inpatient and all-cause outpatient pneumonia were obtained from US claims data analysis by Tong et al (2018) and Hu et al (2020) [ 12 , 37 ]. The incidence rates of pneumococcal AOM were estimated by multiplying the incidence rates of all-cause AOM published by Hu et al (2022) [ 38 ]. and the proportion of AOM attributable to S. pneumoniae reported by Kaur et al (2022) ( Table 1 ) [ 39 ].…”

“…c—The incidence rates of age stratified all-cause inpatient and outpatient pneumonia in adults were obtained from Tong et al, 2018 for the year 2014 [ 12 ]. d—The incidence rates of all-cause simple AOM, recurrent AOM and AOM tube placement in children <18 years were estimated using the MarketScan commercial claims database for 2018 [ 38 ]. e—Based on the serotyping of middle ear fluid collected from children with AOM between 2015 and 2019 by Kaur et al, 2022 [ 39 ].…”

Incidence of acute otitis media from 2003 to 2019 in children ≤ 17 years in England

“…In addition, AOM episodes were classified as simple AOM when referring to a single episode, or categorized as recurrent AOM if a patient had (1) three or more episodes within a 6-month period or (2) four or more episodes within a 12-month period, with at least one episode in the preceding 6 months [ 32 ]. Simple AOM episodes were considered resolved at the earliest date of the last GP visit with an AOM diagnosis followed by a ≥ 14 days gap without a GP visit with an AOM diagnosis, or at the date of death [ 23 , 33 , 34 ]. For episodes in which there was only a single GP visit with a Read diagnosis code for AOM, a period of 14 days was considered after that GP visit to account for antibiotic treatment.…”