Although the percentage of children who influenza vaccinations has increased over the past 10 years, influenza-related healthcare encounters did not appear to be clearly related to vaccination trends, according to a study in Pediatrics.
Researchers analyzed the proportion of laboratory-confirmed influenza-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits and compared them to trends in vaccination coverage for children between 6 and 59 months from 2000-2001 through 2010-2011 in Davidson County, Tenn.
Researchers found the number of fully vaccinated children increased from 6 percent in 2000-01 to 38 percent in 2010-11. The median number of influenza-related hospitalizations was 4.5 per 10,000 children per year, and the median number of influenza-related ED visits was 143 per 10,000 children per year.
However, researchers found no clear relation between hospitalizations and ED visits with vaccination trends.
They did find that influenza-related hospital encounters were higher when influenza A(H3N2) was in circulation, with median rates of 8.2 hospitalizations per 10,000 children and 307 ED visits per 10,000 children.
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