Infection-related mortality in hospitalized children: A multi-center study in China from 2016 to 2021

IF 4.7 3区医学 Q1 INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Journal of Infection and Public Health Pub Date : 2025-03-06 DOI:10.1016/j.jiph.2025.102743

Jiao Tian , Qi Li , Shiqi Cai , Xinyu Wang , Junhong Ai , Guoshuang Feng , Yueping Zeng , Ran Wang , Zhengde Xie

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Hospitalized children experience mortality as a result of infections. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, China's strict prevention measures have curbed pathogen transmission, altering infection-related epidemiology. The Futang Research Center of Pediatric Development has collected the face sheet of discharge medical records (FSMRs) data from 27 tertiary children's hospitals since January 2016, which facilitate us to investigate this issue. Moreover, this study focuses on hospitalized children aged 18 years old or younger.

Methods

This study analyzed data from the FSMRs of children who died from infections at 27 tertiary children’s hospitals across China between January 2016 and December 2021. Of these hospitals, 21 are located in provincial capitals. The data included gender, age, region, residence, year of admission, infections-associated causes of death, pathogens, length of stay, and expense.

Results

A total of 1130 hospitalized children died from infections, accounting for 18.8 % of all deaths and 0.015 % of the total hospitalizations in the database during the period. Boys had a higher fatality than girls across different regions, age groups, years. Among all age groups, 0–28 days and 29 days–1 year group (≤365 days) had a higher number and proportion of deaths than other age groups. In terms of year of admission, the COVID-19 period (2020–2021) had a lower number of infections related death cases than pre-COVID-19 period. Further analysis of infection-related causes indicated that sepsis was the most common cause of death, followed by pneumonia, central nervous system infection, shock, enteritis, and myocarditis. The pathogens (bacterium, virus, fungus) were identified in 30.6 % of children.

Conclusions

Infections are the significant cause of death among hospitalized children in China.

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来源期刊

Journal of Infection and Public Health PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH -INFECTIOUS DISEASES

CiteScore

13.10

自引率

1.50%

发文量

203

审稿时长

96 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Infection and Public Health, first official journal of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and the Saudi Association for Public Health, aims to be the foremost scientific, peer-reviewed journal encompassing infection prevention and control, microbiology, infectious diseases, public health and the application of healthcare epidemiology to the evaluation of health outcomes. The point of view of the journal is that infection and public health are closely intertwined and that advances in one area will have positive consequences on the other. The journal will be useful to all health professionals who are partners in the management of patients with communicable diseases, keeping them up to date. The journal is proud to have an international and diverse editorial board that will assist and facilitate the publication of articles that reflect a global view on infection control and public health, as well as emphasizing our focus on supporting the needs of public health practitioners. It is our aim to improve healthcare by reducing risk of infection and related adverse outcomes by critical review, selection, and dissemination of new and relevant information in the field of infection control, public health and infectious diseases in all healthcare settings and the community.