Acute exacerbations are common in children and potentially preventable. Currently, a past exacerbation is the best predictor of a future exacerbation. We undertook a systematic review of the ...literature describing the relationship between past and future exacerbations. Our analysis considered whether the odds ratios for one exacerbation to predict a recurrence were different across different categories of exacerbation.
Four databases were searched systematically (MEDLINE, Embase, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health and PsycInfo). Exacerbations were categorised by severity as: presentation to emergency department (ED); hospital admission; paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission; and “unspecified severity” (
i.e.
no distinction between severity categories was made). Meta-analysis was performed for studies where sufficient data were provided for inclusion.
There were 26 eligible articles from 9185 identified. There was significant heterogeneity in duration of follow-up, healthcare system and exacerbation definition between studies. For the unspecified severity definition, the odds ratio for an exacerbation after a previous exacerbation was 9.87 (95% CI 5.02–19.39; six studies, 162 583 individuals). PICU admission was also associated with increased risk of future admission (OR 5.87, 95% CI 2.96–11.64; two studies, 730 individuals). Meta-analysis was not possible for ED visits or hospitalisation. The median odds ratio (range) for past ED visit predicting future ED visit was 6.27 (3.3–8.26) and for past hospitalisation predicting future hospitalisation was 3.37 (1.89–5.36).
The odds for a second asthma exacerbation do not necessarily increase with increasing severity of an initial exacerbation.
In 2020, the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdown control measures threatened to disrupt routine childhood immunisation programmes with early reports suggesting uptake would fall. In response, ...public health bodies in Scotland and England collected national data for childhood immunisations on a weekly or monthly basis to allow for rapid analysis of trends. The aim of this study was to use these data to assess the impact of different phases of the pandemic on infant and preschool immunisation uptake rates.
We conducted an observational study using routinely collected data for the year prior to the pandemic (2019) and immediately before (22 January to March 2020), during (23 March to 26 July), and after (27 July to 4 October) the first UK "lockdown". Data were obtained for Scotland from the Public Health Scotland "COVID19 wider impacts on the health care system" dashboard and for England from ImmForm. Five vaccinations delivered at different ages were evaluated; 3 doses of "6-in-1" diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b, and hepatitis B vaccine (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB) and 2 doses of measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine. This represented 439,754 invitations to be vaccinated in Scotland and 4.1 million for England. Uptake during the 2020 periods was compared to the previous year (2019) using binary logistic regression analysis. For Scotland, uptake within 4 weeks of a child becoming eligible by age was analysed along with geographical region and indices of deprivation. For Scotland and England, we assessed whether immunisations were up-to-date at approximately 6 months (all doses 6-in-1) and 16 to 18 months (first MMR) of age. We found that uptake within 4 weeks of eligibility in Scotland for all the 5 vaccines was higher during lockdown than in 2019. Differences ranged from 1.3% for first dose 6-in-1 vaccine (95.3 versus 94%, odds ratio OR compared to 2019 1.28, 95% confidence intervals CIs 1.18 to 1.39) to 14.3% for second MMR dose (66.1 versus 51.8%, OR compared to 2019 1.8, 95% CI 1.74 to 1.87). Significant increases in uptake were seen across all deprivation levels. In England, fewer children due to receive their immunisations during the lockdown period were up to date at 6 months (6-in-1) or 18 months (first dose MMR). The fall in percentage uptake ranged from 0.5% for first 6-in-1 (95.8 versus 96.3%, OR compared to 2019 0.89, 95% CI 0.86- to 0.91) to 2.1% for third 6-in-1 (86.6 versus 88.7%, OR compared to 2019 0.82, 95% CI 0.81 to 0.83). The use of routinely collected data used in this study was a limiting factor as detailed information on potential confounding factors were not available and we were unable to eliminate the possibility of seasonal trends in immunisation uptake.
In this study, we observed that the national lockdown in Scotland was associated with an increase in timely childhood immunisation uptake; however, in England, uptake fell slightly. Reasons for the improved uptake in Scotland may include active measures taken to promote immunisation at local and national levels during this period and should be explored further. Promoting immunisation uptake and addressing potential vaccine hesitancy is particularly important given the ongoing pandemic and COVID-19 vaccination campaigns.
Abstract
Background
Many inpatient facilities in Scotland have opened short stay paediatric assessment units (SSPAU) which are clinical areas separate from the usual inpatient ward area and these are ...where most short stay (also called zero day) admissions are accommodated. Here we describe the effect of opening short stay paediatric assessment units (SSPAU) on the proportion of zero day admissions relative to all emergency admissions.
Methods
Details of all emergency medical paediatric admissions to Scottish hospitals between 2000 and 2013 were obtained, including the number of zero day admissions per month and health board (i.e. geographic region). The month and year that an SSPAU opened in each health board was provided by local clinicians.
Results
SSPAUs opened in 7 health boards, between 2004 and 2012. Health boards with an SSPAU had a slower rise in zero day admissions compared to those without SSPAU (0.6% per month 95% CI 0.04, 0.09. Across all 7 health boards, opening an SSPAU was associated with a 13% 95% CI 10, 15 increase in the proportion of zero day admissions. When considered individually, zero day admissions rose in four health boards after their SSPAU opened, were unchanged in one and fell in two health boards. Independent of SSPAUs opening, there was an increase in the proportion of all admissions which were zero day admissions (0.1% per month), and this accelerated after SSPAUs opened.
Conclusion
Opening an SSPAU has heterogeneous outcomes on the proportion of zero day admissions in different settings. Zero day admissions could be reduced in some health boards by understanding differences in clinical referral pathways between health boards with contrasting trends in zero day admissions after their SSPAU opens.
Service reconfiguration of inpatient services in a hospital includes complete and partial closure of all emergency inpatient facilities. The "natural experiment" of service reconfiguration may give ...insight into drivers for emergency admissions to hospital. This study addressed the question does the prevalence of emergency admission to hospital for children change after reconfiguration of inpatient services?
There were five service reconfigurations in Scottish hospitals between 2004 and 2018 where emergency admissions to one "reconfigured" hospital were halted (permanently or temporarily) and directed to a second "adjacent" hospital. The number of emergency admissions (standardised to /1000 children in the regional population) per month to the "reconfigured" and "adjacent" hospitals was obtained for five years prior to reconfiguration and up to five years afterwards. An interrupted time series analysis considered the association between reconfiguration and admissions across pairs comprised of "reconfigured" and "adjacent" hospitals, with adjustment for seasonality and an overall rising trend in admissions.
Of the five episodes of reconfiguration, two were immediate closure, two involved closure only to overnight admissions and one with overnight closure for a period and then closure. In "reconfigured" hospitals there was an average fall of 117 admissions/month 95% CI 78, 156 in the year after reconfiguration compared to the year before, and in "adjacent" hospitals admissions rose by 82/month 32, 131. Across paired reconfigured and adjacent hospitals, in the months post reconfiguration, the overall number of admissions to one hospital pair slowed, in another pair admissions accelerated, and admission prevalence was unchanged in three pairs. After reconfiguration in one hospital, there was a rise in admissions to a third hospital which was closer than the named "adjacent" hospital.
There are diverse outcomes for the number of emergency admissions post reconfiguration of inpatient facilities. Factors including resources placed in the community after local reconfiguration, distance to the "adjacent" hospital and local deprivation may be important drivers for admission pathways after reconfiguration. Policy makers considering reconfiguration might consider a number of factors which may be important determinants of admissions post reconfiguration.
Single-molecule real-time (SMRT) DNA sequencing allows the systematic detection of chemical modifications such as methylation but has not previously been applied on a genome-wide scale. We used this ...approach to detect 49,311 putative 6-methyladenine (m6A) residues and 1,407 putative 5-methylcytosine (m5C) residues in the genome of a pathogenic Escherichia coli strain. We obtained strand-specific information for methylation sites and a quantitative assessment of the frequency of methylation at each modified position. We deduced the sequence motifs recognized by the methyltransferase enzymes present in this strain without prior knowledge of their specificity. Furthermore, we found that deletion of a phage-encoded methyltransferase-endonuclease (restriction-modification; RM) system induced global transcriptional changes and led to gene amplification, suggesting that the role of RM systems extends beyond protecting host genomes from foreign DNA.
Evidence-based practice is an important component of health care service delivery. However, there is a tendency, embodied in tools such as Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and ...Evaluation, to focus principally on the classification of study design, at the expense of a detailed assessment of the strengths and limitations of the individual study. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and in particular the classical "explanatory" RCT, have a privileged place in the hierarchy of evidence. However, classical RCTs have substantial limitations, most notably a lack of generalizability, which limit their direct applicability to clinical practice implementation. Pragmatic and observational studies can provide an invaluable perspective into real-world applicability. This evidence could be used more widely to complement ideal-condition results from classical RCTs, following the principle of triangulation. In this review article, we discuss several types of pragmatic and observational studies that could be used in this capacity. We discuss their particular strengths and how their limitations may be overcome and provide real-life examples by means of illustration.
This study investigated whether the previously reported associations in this birth cohort between maternal vitamin D and E intakes during pregnancy and childhood wheeze/asthma outcomes at age 5 and ...10 years are still evident at age 15 years. In a prospective study of 1924 children recruited in utero, maternal vitamin D and E intakes during pregnancy were assessed by food frequency questionnaire and the children completed raespiratory questionnaire at age 15 years. Treatment for asthma at age 15 was also ascertained using healthcare data. Maternal vitamin D and E intakes were also related to combined childhood asthma data collected at 1, 2, 5, 10, and 15 years of age. Symptom data were available for 747 (39%) 15‐year olds and healthcare data for 1689 (88%). There were no associations between maternal vitamin D and E intakes and childhood wheeze and asthma at age 15. Analysis of combined data collected between 1 and 15 years of age demonstrated that higher maternal vitamin D and E intakes during pregnancy were associated with a reduced likelihood of being diagnosed with asthma in the first 15 years: hazard ratio (95%CI) per quartile increase in vitamin intake of 0.87 (0.78,0.98) and 0.88 (0.78,0.98), respectively. Lower maternal vitamin D and E intakes during pregnancy are associated with increased risk of children wheezing and being diagnosed with asthma in the first 10 years but not after puberty, suggesting that post‐natal exposures predominate in the etiology of incident asthma as children transition through puberty into adulthood.
Mortality is higher for adults admitted to hospital and for babies born on weekends compared to weekdays. This study compares in-hospital mortality and in children admitted to hospital on weekends ...and weekdays. Details for all acute medical admissions to hospitals in Scotland for children aged ≤16 years between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2013 were obtained. Death was linked to day of admission. There were 570,403 acute medical admissions and 334 children died, including 83 who died after an admission on Saturday or Sunday and 251 who died following admission between Monday and Friday. The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) for a child dying after admission on a weekend compared to weekday was 1.03 95% CI 0.80 to 1.32. The OR for a child admitted over the weekend requiring intensive care unit (ICU) or high dependency unit (HDU) care was 1.24 1.16 to 1.32, but the absolute number of admissions to HDU and ICU per day were similar on weekends and weekdays. We see no evidence of increased in-hospital paediatric mortality after admission on a weekend. The increased risk for admission to ITU or HDU with more serious illness over weekends is explained by fewer less serious admissions.
Asthma is a common condition in children. This review describes the evidence from the literature and international asthma guidelines for using fractional exhaled nitric oxide (
) in the diagnosis and ...monitoring of childhood asthma. The accuracy of
measuring devices could be further improved, the difference in
results between devices are equivalent to what is considered a clinically important difference. For diagnosing asthma no guideline currently recommends
is used as the first test, but many recommend
as part of a series of tests. A cut-off of 35 ppb is widely recommended as being supportive of an asthma diagnosis, but evidence from children at risk of asthma suggests that a lower threshold of 25 ppb may be more appropriate. Nine randomised clinical trials including 1885 children have added
to usual asthma care and find that exacerbations are reduced when care is guided by
(OR for exacerbation compared to usual care 0.77, 95% CI 0.62-0.94). What is not clear is what cut-off(s) of
should be used to trigger a change in treatment. After 30 years of intensive research there is not sufficient evidence to recommend
for routine diagnosing and monitoring asthma in children.
To give the reader an overview of literature that supports and does not support the role of
in diagnosing asthma in children.To give the reader an overview of literature that supports and does not support the role of
in monitoring asthma in children.To give the reader an understanding of the role of
in international guidelines for diagnosing and monitoring asthma in children.
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