Absence from day care or school and parental absence from work during children's respiratory infections

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the social burden of nasopharyngeal detection of various respiratory viruses and the co-detection of viral and bacterial pathogens.

Methods: This prospective cohort study included 737 children with a suspected respiratory tract infection or fever in a paediatric emergency department during one epidemiological year (2014-2015) in Finland. Nasopharyngeal swab samples were analysed with multiplex polymerase chain reaction for 16 viruses and 7 respiratory bacteria. Parents filled out a questionnaire regarding child's and parents' absence from day care, school, or work at the time of the visit and 14 days afterward.

Results: The length of the children's absence from day care or school, or parental absence from work, did not significantly differ between the detected viral pathogens. Co-detection of any respiratory virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae or Haemophilus influenzae in the nasopharynx were associated with a 2.5-day (95% CI of the difference: 0.71 to 4.3) and 3.0-day (95% CI: 0.35 to 5.7) longer parental absence from work, respectively, compared with the detection of viruses alone when adjusted for age.

Conclusion: Nasopharyngeal detection of S. pneumoniae or H. influenzae was associated with an increase in the length of parental absence from work when compared with the detection of virus alone.

Keywords: Haemophilus influenzae; pneumococcus; absence; co-infection; respiratory tract infection.