Aetiological role of common respiratory viruses in acute lower respiratory infections in children under five years: A systematic review and meta–analysis

Acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) remains a major cause of childhood hospitalization and mortality in young children and the causal attribution of respiratory viruses in the aetiology of ALRI is unclear. We aimed to quantify the absolute effects of these viral exposures. We conducted a system...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of global health Vol. 5; no. 1; p. 010408
Main Authors: Shi, Ting, McLean, Kenneth, Campbell, Harry, Nair, Harish
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Scotland Edinburgh University Global Health Society 01.06.2015
Subjects:
acute lower respiratory infections
aetiology
children
global health
meta-analysis
respiratory viruses
systematic review
ISSN:2047-2978, 2047-2986
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) remains a major cause of childhood hospitalization and mortality in young children and the causal attribution of respiratory viruses in the aetiology of ALRI is unclear. We aimed to quantify the absolute effects of these viral exposures. We conducted a systematic literature review (across 7 databases) of case-control studies published from 1990 to 2014 which investigated the viral profile of 18592 children under 5 years with and without ALRI. We then computed a pooled odds ratio and virus-specific attributable fraction among the exposed of 8 common viruses - respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza (IFV), parainfluenza (PIV), human metapneumovirus (MPV), adenovirus (AdV), rhinovirus (RV), bocavirus (BoV), and coronavirus (CoV). From the 23 studies included, there was strong evidence for causal attribution of RSV (OR 9.79; AFE 90%), IFV (OR 5.10; AFE 80%), PIV (OR 3.37; AFE 70%) and MPV (OR 3.76; AFE 73%), and less strong evidence for RV (OR 1.43; AFE 30%) in young children presenting with ALRI compared to those without respiratory symptoms (asymptomatic) or healthy children. However, there was no significant difference in the detection of AdV, BoV, or CoV in cases and controls. This review supports RSV, IFV, PIV, MPV and RV as important causes of ALRI in young children, and provides quantitative estimates of the absolute proportion of virus-associated ALRI cases to which a viral cause can be attributed.
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ISSN:2047-2978
2047-2986
DOI:10.7189/jogh.05.010408