Laboratory epidemiology of respiratory viruses in a large children's hospital: A STROBE-compliant article

Ye, Sheng; Wang, Tianlin

Relevant clinical variables including age, gender, type of sample (throat swab and sputum), source of sample (emergency room vs others), and date of sampling were also collected. The date of sampling was categorized into 4 seasons of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Age was obtained by the difference between date of birth and the date of sampling. Age was an important factor that might influence the distributions of respiratory virus in Children. [11] Season was also an important factor determining the epidemic waves of ARTI in children. [12] Spring was defined as the period from 2016 May 2, 2016 to May 5, 2016 and from February 3, 2017 to April 9, 2017. Summer was defined from the period from May 5, 2016 to August 7, 2016. Autumn was from August 7, 2016 to November 7, 2016 and winter was from November 7, 2016 to February 3, 2017. Furthermore, samples obtained from emergency room and ward can be quite different, for example, samples from ER were more likely to be due to acute respiratory tract infection, while those from ward were obtained from patients with other medical conditions such as hematological malignancy, and thus source of sample was also included for analysis.