Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014
Background The incidence of hospitalizations for acute respiratory infections (ARI) among young Indigenous children from Northern Canada is consistently high. ARIs requiring urgent air transfer can be life-threatening and costly. We aimed to describe their epidemiology, estimate age-specific inciden...
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0272154 2024-05-19T07:46:20+00:00 Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014 Prendergast, Caitlin Robinson, Joan Caya, Chelsea Perez Trejo, Maria E. Guan, Iline Hébert-Murakami, Veronica Marianayagam, Justina Wong, Zing-Wae Walker, Celia Goldfarb, David M. Barrowman, Nick Jetty, Radha Embree, Joanne Papenburg, Jesse Vousden, George Fonds de recherche Québec – santé The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272154 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272154 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 17, issue 7, page e0272154 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2022 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272154 2024-05-01T07:06:54Z Background The incidence of hospitalizations for acute respiratory infections (ARI) among young Indigenous children from Northern Canada is consistently high. ARIs requiring urgent air transfer can be life-threatening and costly. We aimed to describe their epidemiology, estimate age-specific incidences, and explore factors associated with level of care required. Methods We undertook a retrospective cohort study of children <5 years old from Northern Canada transferred by urgent air transport for ARI from 2005 through 2014 to 5 pediatric tertiary care centers in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal. Admissions were identified via ARI-related ICD-9/10 coding and forward sortation area. Descriptive statistics and univariable analyses were performed. Results Among 650 urgent air transfers, the majority were from Nunavut (n = 349, 53.7%) or Nunavik (n = 166, 25.5%), <6 months old (n = 372, 57.2%), and without underlying comorbidity (n = 458; 70.5%). Estimated annual tertiary care ARI admission rates in infants <1 year old from Nunavut (40.7/1000) and Nunavik (44.5/1000) were tenfold higher than in children aged 1 to 4 years. Bronchiolitis (n = 333, 51.2%) and pneumonia (n = 208, 32.0%) were the most common primary discharge diagnoses. Nearly half required critical care (n = 316, 48.6%); mechanical ventilation rates ranged from 7.2% to 55.9% across centres. The most common primary pathogen was respiratory syncytial virus (n = 196, 30.1%). Influenza A or B was identified in 35 cases (5.4%) and vaccine-preventable bacterial infections in 27 (4.1%) cases. Interpretation Urgent air transfers for ARI from Northern Canada are associated with high acuity. Variations in levels of care were seen across referral centers, age groups and pathogens. Article in Journal/Newspaper Nunavut Nunavik PLOS PLOS ONE 17 7 e0272154 |
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English |
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Background The incidence of hospitalizations for acute respiratory infections (ARI) among young Indigenous children from Northern Canada is consistently high. ARIs requiring urgent air transfer can be life-threatening and costly. We aimed to describe their epidemiology, estimate age-specific incidences, and explore factors associated with level of care required. Methods We undertook a retrospective cohort study of children <5 years old from Northern Canada transferred by urgent air transport for ARI from 2005 through 2014 to 5 pediatric tertiary care centers in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Montreal. Admissions were identified via ARI-related ICD-9/10 coding and forward sortation area. Descriptive statistics and univariable analyses were performed. Results Among 650 urgent air transfers, the majority were from Nunavut (n = 349, 53.7%) or Nunavik (n = 166, 25.5%), <6 months old (n = 372, 57.2%), and without underlying comorbidity (n = 458; 70.5%). Estimated annual tertiary care ARI admission rates in infants <1 year old from Nunavut (40.7/1000) and Nunavik (44.5/1000) were tenfold higher than in children aged 1 to 4 years. Bronchiolitis (n = 333, 51.2%) and pneumonia (n = 208, 32.0%) were the most common primary discharge diagnoses. Nearly half required critical care (n = 316, 48.6%); mechanical ventilation rates ranged from 7.2% to 55.9% across centres. The most common primary pathogen was respiratory syncytial virus (n = 196, 30.1%). Influenza A or B was identified in 35 cases (5.4%) and vaccine-preventable bacterial infections in 27 (4.1%) cases. Interpretation Urgent air transfers for ARI from Northern Canada are associated with high acuity. Variations in levels of care were seen across referral centers, age groups and pathogens. |
author2 |
Vousden, George Fonds de recherche Québec – santé The Montreal Children’s Hospital Foundation |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Prendergast, Caitlin Robinson, Joan Caya, Chelsea Perez Trejo, Maria E. Guan, Iline Hébert-Murakami, Veronica Marianayagam, Justina Wong, Zing-Wae Walker, Celia Goldfarb, David M. Barrowman, Nick Jetty, Radha Embree, Joanne Papenburg, Jesse |
spellingShingle |
Prendergast, Caitlin Robinson, Joan Caya, Chelsea Perez Trejo, Maria E. Guan, Iline Hébert-Murakami, Veronica Marianayagam, Justina Wong, Zing-Wae Walker, Celia Goldfarb, David M. Barrowman, Nick Jetty, Radha Embree, Joanne Papenburg, Jesse Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014 |
author_facet |
Prendergast, Caitlin Robinson, Joan Caya, Chelsea Perez Trejo, Maria E. Guan, Iline Hébert-Murakami, Veronica Marianayagam, Justina Wong, Zing-Wae Walker, Celia Goldfarb, David M. Barrowman, Nick Jetty, Radha Embree, Joanne Papenburg, Jesse |
author_sort |
Prendergast, Caitlin |
title |
Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014 |
title_short |
Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014 |
title_full |
Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014 |
title_fullStr |
Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005–2014 |
title_sort |
urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from northern canada, 2005–2014 |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272154 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272154 |
genre |
Nunavut Nunavik |
genre_facet |
Nunavut Nunavik |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 17, issue 7, page e0272154 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272154 |
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PLOS ONE |
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17 |
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7 |
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e0272154 |
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