Symptom Burden and Factors Associated with Acute Respiratory Infections in the First Two Years of Life—Results from the LoewenKIDS Cohort
Susan Langer, Johannes Horn, Cornelia Gottschick, Bianca Klee, Oliver Purschke, Mahrrouz Caputo, Evelyn Dorendorf, Kristin Maria Meyer‐Schlinkmann, Heike Raupach-Rosin, André Karch, Nicole Rübsamen, Mustafa Aydoğdu, Matthias Buhles, Frank Dressler, W. Eberl, Franz Edler von Koch, Torsten Frambach, Heiko G B Franz, Florian Guthmann, Carlos A. Guzmán, Roland Haase, Gesine Hansen, Valerie Heselich, Johannes Hübner, Hans Georg Koch, C. Oberhoff, Peggy Riese, Ralf L. Schild, S Seeger, M Tchirikov, Stephanie Trittel, Constantin von Kaisenberg, Rafael Mikolajczyk
Abstract
Acute respiratory infections (ARIs) are the most common childhood illnesses worldwide whereby the reported frequency varies widely, often depending on type of assessment. Symptom diaries are a powerful tool to counteract possible under-reporting, particularly of milder infections, and thus offer the possibility to assess the full burden of ARIs. The following analyses are based on symptom diaries from participants of the German birth cohort study LoewenKIDS. Primary analyses included frequencies of ARIs and specific symptoms. Factors, which might be associated with an increased number of ARIs, were identified using the Poisson regression. A subsample of two hundred eighty-eight participants were included. On average, 13.7 ARIs (SD: 5.2 median: 14.0 IQR: 10-17) were reported in the first two years of life with an average duration of 11 days per episode (SD: 5.8, median: 9.7, IQR: 7-14). The median age for the first ARI episode was 91 days (IQR: 57-128, mean: 107, SD: 84.5). Childcare attendance and having siblings were associated with an increased frequency of ARIs, while exclusive breastfeeding for the first three months was associated with less ARIs, compared to exclusive breastfeeding for a longer period. This study provides detailed insight into the symptom burden of ARIs in German infants.