THURSDAY, Aug. 10, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Implementation of rotavirus vaccination correlated with a reduction in acute gastroenteritis (AGE)-related hospitalization rates among children <5 years, according to a study published online Aug. 10 in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.
Eyal Leshem, M.D., from the Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and colleagues analyzed data from the State Inpatient Databases of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project to compare AGE-related hospitalization rates among children <5 years during the pre- and post-rotavirus vaccine periods (2000 to 2006 and 2008 to 2013, respectively).
The researchers found that 16 percent of the 1,253,951 AGE-related hospitalizations among children aged <5 years were coded as a rotavirus-related hospitalization. The annual number of AGE-related hospitalizations decreased from 2008 to 2013; an estimated 382,858 hospitalizations were averted, resulting in an estimated cost savings of $1.228 billion.
"The introduction of routine rotavirus vaccination in 2006 was followed by substantial reductions in the rate of AGE-related hospitalizations," the authors write. "Our results provide additional information that supports the effect that the implementation of rotavirus vaccines exerted on AGE-associated morbidity and costs in the United States."
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