OBJECTIVETo investigate clinical and epidemiological characteristics of hospitalized severe acute respiratory illnesses (SARI) patients under 15 years old registered by sentinel hospitals at 10 cities and risk factors analysis of severe illness.

METHODSThe objects of this study were 2 937 SARI patients under 15 years old registered by sentinel surveillance in internal wards, pediatrics wards and intensive care units (ICU) of 10 sentinel hospitals in 10 cities during the period from December 2009 to June 2014. We also collected case report form (CRF) of them and their throat swabs for influenza testing. The inclusion criteria was hospitalized patients who were admitted by surveillance departments, registered by SARI surveillance system, under 15 years old, meeting SARI case definition and with complete CRF. Rank-sum test was used to compare the difference of age, the duration including from onset to admission, hospital stay and from onset to discharging/death between mild illness and severe illness. Chi-square test was used to compare the difference of demographic characteristics, influenza psoitive rate, vaccination rate of influenza, chronic medical conditions and clinical characteristics between mild illness and severe illness. Logistic regression was used to analysis risk factors associated with severe illness by two stratifications from SARI surveillance protocol (< 2 years old and ≥ 2 years old).

RESULTSAmong 2 937 SARI patients under 15 years old, 97.7% (2 872/2 937) was mild illnesses, and 2.3% (65/2 937) was severe illnesses. 78.8% (2 315/2 937) was under 5 years old. The median ages of severe illness and mild illness were 0.4 and 2.0 years old (U = -6.23, P < 0.001). The proportions of severe illness and mild illness with at least one chronic medical condition were 32.3% (21/65) and 8.4% (240/2 872) (χ² = 45.03, P < 0.001). The positive rate of influenza virus was 6.5% (190/2 937), which was 6.5% (186/2 858) for mild illness and 6.2% (4/65) for severe illness (χ² = 0.08, P = 0.961). The proportion of seasonal influenza vaccination was 1.5% (42/2 853), which was 1.5% (42/2 788) for mild illness and higher than that for severe illness (0) (χ² = 6.09, P = 0.048). For under 2 years old patients, age < 11 months and with at least one chronic medical condition were risk factors for severe SARI illness, and the risk for SARI patients who was 12-23 months and without medical condition was 14.71 (5.35-40.44) and 5.61 (2.96-10.63). For ≥ 2 years old patients, age, with at least one chronic medical condition and seasonal influenza vaccination history have no association with severe illness, OR (95% CI) was 0.92 (0.80-1.05), 0.67 (0.09-5.05) and 0.85 (0.31-2.35), respectively.

CONCLUSIONMost of SARI patients registered by 10 urban sentinel hospitals were patients under 5 years old. Age < 11 months and with at least chronic medical conditions were possible risk factors of severe illness of SARI patients.