Observational research in childhood respiratory diseases

Abstract

Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are common during the first two years of life, when infants and young children experience six to eight ARIs annually. In this age group, ARIs are the most commonly managed problems in general practice. Between 3 and 6% of infants are hospitalised in their first year of life with a severe ARI illness. Information about the epidemiology of ARI in children is based on historic communitybased studies, cohorts of hospitalised patients, emergency department or primary healthcare presentations, and more recently from birth cohort studies principally involving children at high-risk of asthma. However, these studies do not completely identify the burden of mild-to-moderate ARIs in the community. Recent community-based cohort studies have used sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays. However, they have had one or more methodological limitations, including subject selection, length of study, non-representative sample populations, variable sampling frequency, and the lack of a control population. Furthermore, frequent detection of respiratory viruses in asymptomatic individuals questions their clinical and public health significance. Studies reporting the causal Publications during candidature Sarna M, Ware RS, Sloots TP, Nissen MD, Grimwood K, Lambert SB. The burden of community-managed acute respiratory infections in the first 2-years of life. Pediatric