title: Time trends in primary-care morbidity, hospitalization and mortality due to pneumonia.
abstract: Most studies reporting pneumonia morbidity are restricted to hospitalized patients, although only a minority of pneumonia patients are admitted to hospital. To get a better understanding of the burden of disease in the general population, we conducted a population-based retrospective study to examine trends in pneumonia incidence in general practice, hospitalization, and mortality due to pneumonia in The Netherlands between 1997 and 2007. Between 2001/2002 and 2006/2007 there was an adjusted yearly increase of 12% in the clinical diagnosis of pneumonia in patients consulting general practitioners. Hospitalizations increased 5% per year between 1999/2000 and 2006/2007, while mortality annually decreased by 2% between 1997/1998 and 2006/2007. Our study suggests that the morbidity of pneumonia in the Dutch population increased considerably over this period, especially in primary-care settings, and that focusing only on hospitalization might underestimate the increasing public health burden of pneumonia.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Centre for Infectious Disease Control Netherlands, Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, Bilthoven, The Netherlands. rianne.van.gageldonk@rivm.nl
authors.forename: A B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: van Gageldonk-Lafeber
authors.forename: M A H
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Bogaerts
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Verheij
authors.forename: M A B
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: van der Sande
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D055815:Young Adult