Nationwide epidemiologic study of norovirus-related hospitalization among Japanese older adults.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Older adults are vulnerable to hospitalization or death from norovirus infection, but the actual disease burden remains unknown. Therefore, we conducted a nationwide survey to estimate the number of inpatients with norovirus gastroenteritis and associated deaths among Japanese older adults.

Methods

We performed a nationwide two-step query targeting 4184 hospital departments selected from 17,575 departments using stratified random sampling according to the number of beds. We asked each department to complete a mail-back questionnaire on the annual numbers of inpatients with infectious gastroenteritis and associated deaths between administrative years 2012 and 2014, and the implementation status of norovirus infection testing. In a second query, we investigated the

SUBMITTER: Ohfuji S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6506929 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature