Impact of Routine Rotavirus Vaccination on Hospitalizations for Rotavirus Gastroenteritis Among Young Children in Norway: an Interrupted Time Series Analysis.
Year: 2016
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Rotavirus vaccines (RV) have decreased the infant morbidity and mortality in countries that included RV in their national schedule.Rotavirus vaccines rotarix and rotateq have been in the Norwegian market for voluntary usage since 2006.But the vaccine rotarix was accepted into the Public health system on routine or universal basis on and after 1 st September, 2014 with the aim of reducing the pressure on health in the form of less hospitalization and physician visit.As at 2013, the incidence rate of hospitalization due to rotavirus infection was 4 per 1000 among children younger than 5 years in Norway.OBJECTIVE: To examine the impact of the vaccine rotarix on hospitalizations due to rotavirus infection among children younger than five years.More specifically, to analyze the effect of the vaccine among infants below one year.The infants below one year were specifically considered for the analyses because they were the eligible age group who have received at least one dose of the vaccine by the end of 2015 -one year post routine vaccine period.METHOD: National data on rotavirus hospitalizations from the Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) before and after the routine vaccination was used for the analyses.I assessed the impact of rotavirus vaccine on the rotavirus hospitalization rates using an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis with ordinary least square (OLS) regression.Quarterly rates estimated for a year after routine rotavirus vaccination (2015) were compared with the rates of preroutine vaccine years (2000-2014), adjusting for secular and seasonal trends.RESULT: There was no statistical significant decrease in rotavirus hospitalizations one year after the routine vaccination among infants younger than one year in Norway.Though one year is a short period to accessed the impact of a vaccine, a rise in the level of rotavirus hospitalizations after the vaccination is a concern that need attention and further studies.
Author: Abraham Danquah
Language: English
Subfield: Infectious Diseases
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2598571773