The Epidemiology of Varicella and Its Complications

The automated records of over 250,000 members of a health maintenance organization were analyzed to assess the epidemiology of varicella and its complications between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 1992. All complications were verified by review of full-text medical records. The incidence rates of varicell...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of infectious diseases 1995-09, Vol.172 (3), p.706-712
Main Authors: Choo, Peter W., Donahue, James G., Manson, JoAnn E., Platt, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Age groups
Biological and medical sciences
Boston - epidemiology
Cellulitis
Chickenpox
Chickenpox - complications
Chickenpox - epidemiology
Child
Child, Preschool
Epidemiology
Female
Health Maintenance Organizations - statistics & numerical data
Hepatitis
Hospitalization
Human viral diseases
Humans
Incidence
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Infections
Infectious diseases
Major Articles
Male
Medical Records
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Pneumonia
Sex Characteristics
Superinfection
Viral diseases
Viral diseases with cutaneous or mucosal lesions and viral diseases of the eye
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The automated records of over 250,000 members of a health maintenance organization were analyzed to assess the epidemiology of varicella and its complications between 1 July 1990 and 30 June 1992. All complications were verified by review of full-text medical records. The incidence rates of varicella in persons < 15 years of age were 20%–50% lower than published figures, probably reflecting underreporting. The rates in those ⩾15 years old, however, were greater than those reported for 1972–1978 (607 vs. 291/105 years, 15–19 years old; 175 vs. 33/105 years, ⩾20 years old). The rates of hospitalization for uncomplicated varicella, skin superinfections, and pneumonia in children were, respectively, 15, 11, and 4 times higher than previous estimates. Hospitalization rates for adults with pneumonia and uncomplicated varicella were >5 times higher than prior figures. Thus, varicella in adults and varicella complications in general may be more frequent than previously estimated.
ISSN:0022-1899
1537-6613
DOI:10.1093/infdis/172.3.706