ArticleBMJ open2026
Incidence of respiratory syncytial virus in adults ≥50 years during and following the COVID-19 pandemic in upper midwest USA: a community-based prospective cohort study.
Article in BMJ open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important viral pathogen in children, older adults and adults with certain high-risk conditions. In our prospective community-based cohort study of adults 50 years and older before the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidence of RSV acute respiratory infection (ARI) was 48.6 cases/1000 person-years (PY), which decreased to near zero during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective was to determine the incidence of RSV-ARI during the 2 years following the initial phase of the pandemic (2021-2022 and 2022-2023).
designThis is a community-based prospective cohort study.
settingAdults living in southeast Minnesota from October 2021 to September 2022 (year 3) and October 2022 to September 2023 (year 4).
participantsAdults≥50 years (n=2500). PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: We calculated incidence and attack rates for RSV-ARI as primary outcome and reported hospitalisations, pneumonia and death following ARI as secondary outcome.
resultsThere were 2500 participants in the study with a mean age of 68.2 years (SD 9.3) at the start of year 3. Participants were predominantly female (60%), non-Hispanic white (96%) and residing in urban areas (76%). The incidence rate of RSV-ARI was 6.12/1000 PY (95% CI 3.42 to 10.09) in 2021-2022 and 16.40/1000 PY (95% CI 11.66 to 22.42) in 2022-2023. We noted higher attack rates of RSV-ARI during the winter months. There were no hospitalisations, pneumonia or deaths within 30 days of RSV-ARI.
conclusionsCompared with the period before the COVID-19 pandemic, RSV-ARI incidence was lower in both 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 periods. In 2022-2023, the incidence increased 2.7-fold compared with the 2021-2022 period. The observed incidence rates, particularly the significant increase in the most recent season, underscore the continued public health relevance of RSV-ARI and support the rationale for ongoing RSV vaccination efforts to mitigate its overall burden in the population.
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.