New Zealand (NZ) Māori and Pacific children have high rates of acute rheumatic fever (ARF). Around 150 new cases arise each year. As part of the national ARF prevention programme, funding is available to improve housing. To obtain maximum benefit from interventions, an effective tool is needed for targeting high-risk children. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of using hospitalisations for identifying children at risk of subsequent ARF.
Three potentially avoidable hospitalisation (PAH) groups were investigated, including diseases thought to be influenced by housing. All were developed using expert opinion or systematic reviews. These were: (i) the PAH conditions associated with the housing environment (PAHHE) group; (ii) the Crowding group; and (iii) the Ministry of Health (MoH) group. We analysed NZ public hospital discharge data (2000-2014). The prevalence of ARF among patients hospitalised in each group was calculated to estimate sensitivity and potential effectiveness. The number needed to screen (NNS) to identify one ARF case was estimated as a measure of efficiency.
Nearly one-third of ARF patients experienced a PAH as children (before developing ARF). Sensitivity for detecting future ARF ranged from <5% (MoH group) to 27% (PAHHE group). NNS ranged from 502.4 (PAHHE) to 707.5 (MoH).
Because ARF is relatively rare, observing hospitalisations is not particularly efficient for targeting prevention activities for this condition alone. However, housing interventions are likely to improve multiple outcomes; thus, the hospital setting is still useful for identifying at-risk children who could benefit from such programmes.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
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3%
Other
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Unknown
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Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 5. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 04 July 2018.
All research outputs
#10,186,100
of 34,411,289 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health
#1,470
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Outputs of similar age
#141,673
of 492,604 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health
#20
of 84 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,411,289 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 70th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,959 research outputs from this source. They typically receive more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 8.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 84 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its contemporaries.
