title: Influenza-like illness among Hong Kong Chinese pregnant women.
abstract: We assessed the self-reported prevalence of influenza-like illness (ILI) during pregnancy in two samples of 546 and 2764 new mothers who were pregnant during the 2009-10 and 2010-11 peak influenza seasons. During pregnancy, 11% of participants experienced an ILI. Cough, sore throat and nasal congestion were the most common reported symptoms. Only 4.6% and 9% of the participants in sample 1 and 2 had an underlying chronic illness, respectively, and 3.3% of mothers in both groups were smokers. Conducting regular surveillance on influenza prevalence during pregnancy is essential to evaluate the costs and benefits of influenza vaccination programmes.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , China.
authors.forename: Valerie W Y
authors.initials: VW
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Marie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tarrant
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002681:China / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014777:Virus Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Influenza; maternal health; pregnancy; respiratory illness