ArticleBMC infectious diseases2021
Influenza and other respiratory viral infections associated with absence from school among schoolchildren in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA: a cohort study.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Monitoring School Absenteeism for Influenza-Like Illness Surveillance: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2023Pooled it
- A qualitative descriptive study exploring perspectives on a school-based take-home COVID-19 saliva testing program.Paediatrics & child health · 2026Article
- Risk assessment of communicable respiratory diseases transmission based on social contact networks: a primary school contact data survey conducted with portable high-precision devices.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Epidemiology of influenza from 2017 to 2022 in a national children's regional medical center.BMC pediatrics · 2025Article
- Influenza B Virus Vaccine Innovation through Computational Design.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Multivalent Epigraph Hemagglutinin Vaccine Protects against Influenza B Virus in Mice.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Post-COVID-19 pandemic changes in pertussis incidence among patients with acute respiratory tract infections in Zhejiang, China.Frontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on paediatric bilateral myringotomy and tube insertion rates in New Brunswick, Canada.The Journal of laryngology and otology · 2023Article
- Existing Evidence for Influenza B Virus Adaptations to Drive Replication in Humans as the Primary Host.Viruses · 2023Review
- Safer school with near-UV technology: novel applications for environmental hygiene.Journal of environmental health science & engineering · 2023Article
- Household Transmission Dynamics of Seasonal Human Coronaviruses.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2023Article
- The Common Cold and Influenza in Children: To Treat or Not to Treat?Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Structural factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection risk in an urban slum setting in Salvador, Brazil: A cross-sectional survey.PLoS medicine · 2022Article
- Expanding Mouse-Adapted Yamagata-like Influenza B Viruses in Eggs Enhances In Vivo Lethality in BALB/c Mice.Viruses · 2022Article
- Structural factors contributing to SARS-CoV-2 infection risk in the urban slum setting.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundInformation on the etiology and age-specific burden of respiratory viral infections among school-aged children remains limited. Though school aged children are often recognized as driving the transmission of influenza as well as other respiratory viruses, little detailed information is available on the distribution of respiratory infections among children of different ages within this group. Factors other than age including gender and time spent in school may also be important in determining risk of infection but have been little studied in this age group.
methodsWe conducted a cohort study to determine the etiology of influenza like illness (ILI) among 2519 K-12 students during the 2012-13 influenza season. We obtained nasal swabs from students with ILI-related absences. Generalized linear mixed-effect regressions determined associations of outcomes, including ILI and laboratory-confirmed respiratory virus infection, with school grade and other covariates.
resultsOverall, 459 swabs were obtained from 552 ILI-related absences. Respiratory viruses were found in 292 (63.6%) samples. Influenza was found in 189 (41.2%) samples. With influenza B found in 134 (70.9%). Rates of influenza B were significantly higher in grades 1 (10.1, 95% CI 6.8-14.4%), 2 (9.7, 6.6-13.6%), 3 (9.3, 6.3-13.2%), and 4 (9.9, 6.8-13.8%) than in kindergarteners (3.2, 1.5-6.0%). After accounting for grade, sex and self-reported vaccination status, influenza B infection risk was lower among kindergarteners in half-day programs compared to kindergarteners in full-day programs (OR = 0.19; 95% CI 0.08-0.45).
conclusionsILI and influenza infection is concentrated in younger schoolchildren. Reduced infection by respiratory viruses is associated with a truncated school day for kindergarteners but this finding requires further investigation in other grades and populations.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.