Healthcare resource utilisation and cost of pneumococcal disease from 2003 to 2019 in children ≤17 years in England

OBJECTIVE: To estimate healthcare resource utilisation (HCRU) and costs associated with pneumococcal disease (PD) in children aged ≤17 years in England from 2003–2019. METHODS: A retrospective study in children aged ≤17 years was conducted using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Gold primary care database and Hospital Episodes Statistics Admitted Patient Care database from 2003–2019. Episodes of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) were identified in hospital, pneumococcal pneumonia (PP) and all-cause pneumonia (ACP) episodes in primary care and in hospital, and acute otitis media (AOM) episodes in primary care. General practitioner (GP) visits and inpatient admission yearly rates were calculated per 1,000 persons. The average inpatient and primary care cost per episode were calculated. The Mann-Kendall test was used to assess monotonic time trends. RESULTS: 1,500,686 children were followed from 2003–2019. The highest average inpatient cost per episode [£34,255 (95%CI 27,222–41,288)] was in IPD, followed by ACP [£3,549 (95%CI 3,405–3,693)] and PP [£1,498 (95%CI 1,153–1,843)]. The highest primary care costs per episode were in AOM [£48.7 (95%CI 48.7–48.7)], followed by PP [£38.4 (95%CI 37.0–39.7)] and ACP [£28.6 (95%CI 28.2–29.1)]. The highest inpatient admission and GP visits yearly rates were observed in children aged <2 years. Across years, a significant decrease in GP visits yearly rates was observed for PP, ACP and AOM in children overall (p-value<0.001). A decrease in primary care costs was observed for ACP (p-value<0.001). There was an increasing trend in AOM primary care costs (p-value<0.001). No significant trends were observed in inpatient admission yearly rates in PP, ACP or IPD and inpatient costs per episode in PP, ACP and IPD. CONCLUSION: From 2003–2019, primary care HCRU and costs decreased (except for PP cost), but no trends in inpatient HCRU and costs were observed. The economic burden of pneumonia, IPD and AOM remains substantial in children aged ≤17 years in England.