Amethodforreportingandclassifyingacuteinfectiousdiseasesinaprospectivestudyofyoungchildren:TEDDY
MariaLsinfectionsusingadiarybook.Thepresentpapershowshowtheselargeamountsofpartiallystructureddatawerereducedintoquantitativedata-setsandfurthercategorizedintosystem-specificinfectiousdiseaseepisodes.Thenumbersandfrequenciesofacuteinfectionsandinfectiousepisodesareshown.
Methods
Studysubjects(n = 3463)includedchildrenwhohadattendedstudyvisitseverythreemonthsfromage3monthsto4years,withoutmissingtwoormoreconsecutivevisitsduringthefollow-up.ParentsrecordedillnessesprospectivelyinaTEDDYBookathome.ThedatawereenteredintothestudydatabaseduringstudyvisitsusingICD-10codeyaresearchnurse.TEDDYinvestigatorsgroupedICD-10codesandfeverreportsintoinfectiousdiseaseentitiesandfurtherarrangedthemintofourmaincategoriesofinfectiousepisodes:respiratory,gastrointestinal,other,andunknownfebrileepisodes.Incidencerateofinfectionswaodeledasfunctionofgender,HLA-DQgeneticriskgroupandstudycenterusingthePoissonregression.
Results
Atotalof113,884ICD-10codereportsforinfectiousdiseasesrecordedinthedatabasewerereducedto71,578infectiousepisodes,including74.0%respiratory,13.1%gastrointestinal,5.7%otherinfectiousepisodesand7.2%febrileepisodes.Respiratoryandgastrointestinalinfectiousepisodesweremorefrequentduringwinter.Infectiousepisoderatespeakedat6monthsandbegandecliningafter18monthsofage.Theoverallinfectiousepisoderatewas5.2episodesperperson-yearandvariedsignificantlybycountryofresidence,sexandHLAgenotype.
Conclusions
ThedatareductionandcategorizationprocessdevelopedbyTEDDYenablesysisofsingleinfectiousagentsaswellaslargerarraysofinfectiousagentsorclinicaldiseaseentities.ThepreliminarydescriptiveysesoftheincidenceofinfectionsamongTEDDYparticipantsyoungerthan4yearsfitswellwithgeneralknowledgeofinfectiousdiseaseepidemiology.Thisprotocolcanbeusedasatemplateinforthcomingtime-dependentTEDDYysesandinotherepidemiologicalstudies.
