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Aim: The aim of this study was to examine whether the risk for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-related hospitalisation changes through the first year of life in infants of 32-35 weeks' gestational age (wGA). Methods: Risk factors from the FLIP-2 study (190 cases/4566 age-matched controls) were included in a Cox regression analysis wherein time slices were taken at 1-month intervals from birth. Results: Half of all RSV hospitalisations occurred in the first 68 days after birth, with 56% occurring within 90 days. The time taken for 50% of hospitalisations to occur was 148 days for those born outside the RSV season and 58 days for those born within the season. By 90 days old, 84% of infants born in the season and 20% of those born outside the season were hospitalised. In both groups, hospitalisations occurred ≥5 months after birth. Male sex, smoking whilst pregnant, month of birth, duration of breastfeeding, number of siblings at school, and number of smokers in household all contributed to the risk of RSV hospitalisation beyond the age of 90 days. Conclusions: The risk of RSV hospitalisation appears to persist to at least 5-6 months old in 32-35 wGA infants, which has implications for the optimal management of disease prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A model to predict hospitalization due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) of infants born at 33– 35 weeks' gestation was developed using seven risk factors from the Spanish FLIP study “birth ±10 weeks from the beginning of the RSV season”, “birth weight”, “breast fed ≤2 months”, “number of siblings ≥2 years”, “number of family members with atopy”, “number of family members with wheezing”, and “gender”. The aim of this study was to validate the model using French data. Methods: The FLIP model [predictive accuracy 71%, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) 0.791] was tested against the French data (77 hospitalized infants with RSV born at 33–35 weeks and 154 age-matched controls) using discriminatory function analysis by applying the FLIP coefficients to the French data and by generating the seven variable model from the French data. Results: Applying the FLIP coefficients to the French dataset, the model correctly classified 69% of cases (ROC 0.627). The predictive power increased to 73% (ROC 0.654) when “number of siblings ≥2 years” was substituted for “number of children at school”. The number needed to treat (NNT) in order to prevent 70% of hospitalizations was 18. The model derived using French data could correctly classify 62% of cases in the French data (ROC 0.658). Conclusions: The model was successfully validated and may potentially optimize immunoprophylaxis in French infants born at 33–35 week's gestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]