Acute upper respiratory infections admissions in England and Wales

Abstract

Acute respiratory infections block the bronchial and/or nasal systems’ airways. These infections may present in a variety of ways, from minor symptoms like the common cold to more serious illnesses like pneumonia or lung collapse. Acute respiratory infections cause over 1.3 million infant deaths under the age of 5 each year throughout the world. Among all illnesses, respiratory infections make for 6% of the worldwide disease burden. We aimed to examine the admissions related to acute upper respiratory infections admissions in England and Wales for the period between April 1999 and April 2020. This was an ecological study using publicly available data extracted from the Hospital Episode Statistics database in England, and the Patient Episode Database for Wales for the period between April 1999 and April 2020. The acute upper respiratory infections-related hospital admissions were identified using the Tenth Revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 5th Edition (used by National Health Service [NHS] to classify diseases and other health conditions) (J00–J06). The total annual number of admissions for various reasons increased by 1.09-fold (from 92,442 in 1999 to 193,236 in 2020), expressing an increase in hospital admission rate of 82.5% (from 177.30 [95% confidence interval {CI}: 176.15–178.44] in 1999 to 323.57 [95%CI: 322.13–325.01] in 2020 per 100,000 persons, P < .01). The most common causes were acute tonsillitis and acute upper respiratory infections of multiple and unspecified sites, which accounted for 43.1% and 39.4%, respectively. Hospital admissions rate due to acute upper respiratory infections increased sharply during the study period. The rates of hospital admissions were higher among those in the age group below 15 and 75 years and above for the majority of respiratory infections, with a higher incidence in females.