Long-term health and socioeconomic consequences of childhood and adolescent onset of meningococcal meningitis

Line Pickering, Poul Jennum, Rikke Ibsen, Jakob Kjellberg

We estimated the long-term socioeconomic consequences and health care costs of Neisseria meningitidis meningitis (NM). The prospective cohort study included Danish individuals with onset of NM in childhood and adolescence, diagnosed between 1980 and 2009. Health care costs and socioeconomic data were obtained from nationwide administrative and health registers. Two thousand nine hundred two patients were compared with 11,610 controls matched for age, gender, and other sociodemographic characteristics. In the follow-up analysis at the age of 30 years, 1028 patients were compared with 4452 controls. We found that (1) NM caused increased mortality at disease onset, but after adequate treatment, the mortality rate was similar to that of the general population; (2) neurological and eye diseases were more frequently observed in patients; (3) patients had significantly lower grade-point averages; (4) patients had lower income even when transfer payments were taken into account; and (5) patients' initial health care costs were elevated. NM has significant influence on mortality, morbidity, education, and income. We suggest that the management of patients with previous meningococcal meningitis should focus on early educational and social interventions to improve social and health outcomes. What is known: • Meningococcal meningitis is a severe infectious disease affecting children and adolescents with high rates of mortality and complications. What is new: • Meningococcal meningitis causes increased mortality at disease onset, but after adequate treatment the mortality rate is similar to that of the general population. • Meningococcal meningitis in childhood and adolescence has a major long-term effect on morbidity, health care costs, education, employment, and income.