Objective: To determine rates of hospitalisation of young children for acute gastroenteritis in Australia, and to estimate the proportion of these admissions caused by rotavirus infection.
Design: Analysis of hospital admission records, and parallel, prospectively collected data on rotavirus-positive admissions.
Setting: Hospitals admitting young children in all Australian States and Territories in 1993-1996.
Patients: All children under five years admitted to hospital for acute gastroenteritis (International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision principal diagnosis codes 003.0, 004.0-009.3 and 558.9).
Main outcome measures: Rate of hospital admission per 1000 children per year by State, and the proportion of admissions caused by rotavirus infection.
Results: There were almost 20,000 hospital admissions annually in Australia for acute gastroenteritis in children under five years, at an average rate of 15/1000. An estimated 50% of these were attributable to rotavirus infection, implying a rate of hospitalisation for rotavirus-related gastroenteritis of 7.5/1000/year. Among children under two years this rate was 11.6/1000. Rotavirus incidence rates generally followed a typical seasonal pattern in temperate regions of the country, with sharp peaks in mid to late winter. Rates of hospitalisation varied markedly, even between States with apparently similar patterns of disease, while the incidence in the Northern Territory was 3-5 times higher than other States.
Conclusions: Rotavirus-related gastroenteritis is a major cause of hospital admissions in young children, and large savings to the healthcare system are possible if it can be prevented at reasonable cost. Variation in treatment practices between States may be worth studying in greater detail as another source of potential savings.