The Burden of Streptococcus Pneumoniae-Related Admissions in Pediatric Population: A Retrospective Cohort Study Between Years 2018-2023 From a Southern Italian Region.

Authors

Pamela Di Giovanni, Giuseppe Di Martino, Mariarosaria Petrangelo, Valeria Donatiello, Federica Vaccaro, Livia Tognaccini, Edoardo Trebbi, Teresa Aita, Ferdinando Romano, Tommaso Staniscia

Published in

Health science reports. Volume 9. Issue 7. Pages e72807. Epub Jul 15, 2026.

Abstract

Pneumococcus are often found in the respiratory tract of healthy people, especially children, and are a common cause of infections such as otitis media, sinusitis, conjunctivitis and community-acquired pneumonia. In other cases, the bacteria can cause more serious conditions known collectively as invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), which include meningitis, bacteremia and osteomyelitis.
The aim of the present study was to determine the burden and incidence of hospitalizations caused by S. pneumoniae in the pediatric population resident in Abruzzo region, Italy.
This was a retrospective study. All admissions performed during the period 2018-2023 were extracted from the hospital discharge records. Hospitalization rates were directly standardized for age and gender, accordingly to the population of Abruzzo region.
The annual hospitalization rate for SP pneumonia during the study period showed a significant decrease between the years 2018-2021 with an APC of -14.6 (95% CI: -36.1-0.6), followed by a substantial increase across the period 2021-2023 with a significant APC of 74.2 (95% CI: 27.9-127.3). For meningitis, an increasing trend was observed between 2018 and 2020, with an AAPC of 6.1 (95% CI: 1.6-10.9), followed by a decline in 2021 and 2022. Bacteremia was stable during the study period. Conclusions: This study shows that pneumococcal disease has a significant impact on the pediatric population and on the health care system. These findings highlight the importance of improving vaccination of newborns and monitoring the circulation of pneumococcal serotypes.

PMID:
42466376
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Jul 2026.

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