Rotavirus gastroenteritis: impact on young children, their families and the health care system

Abstract

Objective To assess the impact of rotavirus gastroenteritis on young children attending a paediatric hospital, their families and the health care system. Design Cross‐sectional descriptive survey. Setting New Children's Hospital (Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children), Sydney, New South Wales, 15 July to 4 October 1996. Participants Children aged under three years attending the Emergency Department with acute diarrhoea as the presenting symptom. Outcome measures Cases of rotavirus infection confirmed by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay by age; rotavirus serotype; gastroenteritis severity score; estimated costs to parents (lost pay or leave, travel, medication and other expenses) and to the health care system (visits to Emergency Department and other health care workers, hospital admissions). Results 280 children were recruited (73% of 384 children who met the inclusion criteria and 27% of the 1037 aged under three years with acute gastroenteritis). Rotavirus was detected in 188 of the 280 (67%); most isolates were serotype G1 (86% of the 174 serotyped). Of the 188 children with confirmed rotavirus infection 78% were aged 7‐24 months and 82% visited at least one other health care worker, usually a general practitioner. Seventy (37% of the 188) were admitted to hospital; 33 of these (47%) were aged 13‐24 months. Estimated mean total cost per episode of rotavirus gastroenteritis was $1744 for children admitted to hospital and $441 for children not admitted. The mean cost to families was $493 for children admitted to hospital and $228 for children not admitted. Conclusions Rotavirus gastroenteritis has a significant impact on young children, their families and the health care system. Prevention of severe disease through routine infant vaccination would be potentially cost‐effective.

An estimation of indirect costs caused by acute rotavirus gastroenteritis in a Galician area, Spain

“…Only the Lee et al study [6] made such a comprehensive collection of indirect costs as ours; by contrast, other studies with similar objectives [5,7,8,10] did not consider from 25-80% of the expense sources taken into account in both studies. According to the most recent epidemiological data about rotavirus disease in Spain, approximately 310,000 cases of rotavirus-induced diarrhea occur every year in children under 5 years of age, causing 7,500 hospitalizations [1][2][3][4].…”

Estimating the economic burden from illnesses associated with recreational coastal water pollution—a case study in Orange County, California

“…With half of the exposed population being children, one might think the estimated lost wages would decrease because children are typically not employed. However, studies at day-care centers have found that a sick child requires a caretaker to remain at home from work, and thus results in loss of productivity, as if the caretaker were ill themself (Hardy et al, 1994;Liddle et al, 1997;Carabin et al, 1999). This scenario does not hold true when one of the parents is a stay-at-home caretaker.…”

Economic Impact of a Rotavirus Vaccine in Brazil

“…For the calculation of years lived with disability, only morbidity from disease severe enough to require medical care was considered. Default disability weights from the Global Burden of Disease Study (12), the WHO guidelines for cost-effectiveness studies (25), and estimated rotavirus illness duration of six days (26) were used in calculating years lived with disability. DALYs calculated reflect the disabili-ty weight and duration estimates for gastroenteritis due to rotavirus as provided in the Global Burden of Disease Study (12).…”