Hospitalizations for Kawasaki syndrome among children in the United States, 1997-2007.
BACKGROUND
The present study describes the rate and trends of childhood hospitalizations with Kawasaki syndrome (KS) in the United States.


METHODS
Retrospective analysis of hospitalizations with KS among children <18 years of age in the United States using the Kids' Inpatient Database (1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006) and the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (1998-2007).


RESULTS
The KS-associated hospitalization rate for children <5 years of age was 20.8 (95% CI: 18.5-23.1) per 100,000 children in 2006. Annual rates remained constant during the study period, except for a peak in 2005. In 2006, 76.8% (SE = 0.9%) of an estimated 5523 (SE = 289) KS-associated hospitalizations among children <18 years of age were <5 years of age. The mean age for all children at hospitalization was 3.0 years (SE <0.1); 25.7 months (SE = 0.3) for children <5 years of age, and 24.8 months (SE = 0.4) and 27.1 months (SE = 0.5) for boys and girls, respectively. The rate for boys was higher than that for girls (24.2 [95% CI: 21.3-27.1] and 16.8 [95% CI: 14.7-18.9], respectively). The rate for Asian/Pacific Islander children (30.3 [95% CI: 20.2-40.4]) was the highest among the racial groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The national KS-associated annual hospitalization rate for children <5 years of age from 1997 to 2007 was relatively stable and was similar to previously published rates, except for an increase in 2005. Most hospitalizations were in children <3 years of age with few hospitalizations during the first 2 months of age. Children of Asian/Pacific Islander descent had the highest hospitalization rate.
Holman
Robert C
RC
Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta, GA 30333, USA. RHolman@cdc.gov
Belay
Ermias D
ED
Christensen
Krista Y
KY
Folkema
Arianne M
AM
Steiner
Claudia A
CA
Schonberger
Lawrence B
LB
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D008297:Male; D009080:Mucocutaneous Lymph Node Syndrome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology