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Estimating hospital admissions due to rotavirus gastroenteritis from hospital episode statistics

F Andrew I Riordan1, Theresa Quigley

  • 1Department of Child Health, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Bordeseley Green East, Birmingham B9 5SS, UK. riordaa@heartsol.wmids.nhs.uk

The Journal of Infection
|June 15, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Rotavirus gastroenteritis is often miscoded in children under 5. Accurate coding is crucial for understanding rotavirus disease burden in hospital admissions.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Infectious Diseases
  • Gastroenterology
  • Public Health Surveillance

Background:

  • Rotavirus is a leading cause of severe gastroenteritis in young children.
  • Accurate coding of infectious diseases is vital for public health surveillance and resource allocation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the proportion of hospital admissions for gastroenteritis in children under 5 that are attributable to rotavirus.
  • To assess the accuracy of ICD-10 coding for rotavirus gastroenteritis.

Main Methods:

  • Prospective observational study of children under 5 admitted with acute gastroenteritis.
  • Rotavirus infection was confirmed by stool testing.
  • Analysis of ICD-10 codes assigned for intestinal infectious disease and non-infectious gastroenteritis.

Main Results:

  • Rotavirus was detected in 170 of 420 children admitted with acute gastroenteritis.
  • Rotavirus gastroenteritis was present in 20% of those coded for non-infectious gastroenteritis and 40% of those coded for intestinal infectious disease.
  • Only 18 children received the specific ICD-10 code for rotavirus gastroenteritis.

Conclusions:

  • Current coding practices underestimate the burden of rotavirus gastroenteritis in hospital admissions.
  • Hospital episode statistics using general codes for diarrheal diseases are unreliable for estimating rotavirus prevalence.
  • Improved diagnostic coding is needed to accurately capture rotavirus disease burden.
Abstract

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