A Reduction in the Number of Hospitalized Cases of Acute Meningitis during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan

Objective The changes in the prevalence of acute meningitis during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remain unclear. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of acute meningitis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the Japanese nation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Internal Medicine 2024/05/15, Vol.63(10), pp.1353-1359
Main Authors: Akaishi, Tetsuya, Tarasawa, Kunio, Fushimi, Kiyohide, Ota, Chiharu, Sekiguchi, Sumireko, Aoyagi, Tetsuji, Yaegashi, Nobuo, Aoki, Masashi, Fujimori, Kenji
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Disease
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Bacteria
bacterial meningitis
Child
Child, Preschool
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 pandemic
DPC database
Female
Hospitalization
Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Japan - epidemiology
Male
Meningitis
Meningitis - epidemiology
Meningitis, Viral - epidemiology
Middle Aged
Original
Pandemics
Prevalence
Retrospective Studies
SARS-CoV-2
Tuberculosis
viral meningitis
Young Adult
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Summary:Objective The changes in the prevalence of acute meningitis during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remain unclear. This study aimed to compare the prevalence of acute meningitis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the Japanese nationwide administrative medical payment system database, Diagnosis Procedure Combination (DPC), from 2016 to 2022. A total of 547 hospitals consistently and seamlessly offered DPC data during this period. The study period was divided into the following three periods: April 2016 to March 2018 (fiscal years 2016-2017), April 2018-March 2020 (2018-2019), and April 2020-March 2022 (2020-2021). Results Among the 28,161,806 patients hospitalized during the study period, 28,399 were hospitalized for acute meningitis: 16,678 for viral/aseptic type, 6,189 for bacterial type, 655 for fungal type, 429 for tuberculous, 2,310 for carcinomatous type, and 2,138 for other or unknown types of meningitis. A significant decrease during the pandemic was confirmed in viral (n=7,032, n=5,775, and n=3,871 in each period; p
ISSN:0918-2918
1349-7235
1349-7235
DOI:10.2169/internalmedicine.3022-23