PURPOSE: This study aimed to quantify the burden of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)- and influenza-attributed acute respiratory infections (ARI) in older adults in France. Modelling was applied to real-world data on ARI-attributed hospital admissions and in-hospital mortality to estimate pathogen-specific outcomes and investigate the underreporting of RSV in standard clinical practice. Additionally, healthcare resource utilisation was assessed. METHODS: This retrospective, observational cohort study used routinely collected, secondary care data from the Programme National de Médicalisation des Systèmes d'Information (PMSI) database. All patients aged ≥ 50 years with an ARI-related hospitalisation, identified through International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) coding, between July 2014 and February 2020 were included. The predicted number and annual rate of hospitalisations were calculated using a Quasi-Poisson regression model, stratified by age group. Sensitivity analyses were used to investigate cardiorespiratory hospital admissions and in-hospital mortality. RESULTS: 2,009,218 patients with an ARI-related hospitalisation were identified. Predicted rates of RSV- and influenza-attributable ARI hospitalisations ranged from 0.05 and 0.27 per 1000 person-years among 50-54-year-olds to 14.38 and 12.48 per 1000 person-years among ≥ 90-year-olds, respectively. Rates of in-hospital mortality were similar between the two pathogens, while RSV was predicted to account for a much larger number of cardiorespiratory hospitalisations than influenza. RSV-coded hospitalisations lasted 8-11 days across age groups, and 25.6% of 55-59-year-olds hospitalised with RSV were admitted to an intensive care unit. CONCLUSION: These data reveal a substantial burden of RSV-related morbidity and mortality among older adults in France, demonstrating a need to prioritise RSV prevention.
Reeves et al. (Mon,) studied this question.