Clinical ChaRacteristics and outcomEs of hospitAlized chilDren with Acute resPiratory infecTions: th

After the relaxation of public health and non-pharmaceutical interventions for the COVID-19 pandemic, children's hospitals experienced high volumes of acutely unwell children with respiratory tract infections in 2022/2023. The underlying reason for both the volume of cases and severity of illness was unknown, and may be due to host, pathogen, and epidemiological factors. We sought to describe the sociodemographic characteristics, clinical presentation and outcomes of hospitalized children with acute respiratory infections. We extracted detailed clinical characteristics and outcomes of children under the age of 18 years admitted to The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in 2022/2023 with acute respiratory infections. This USRA placement will involve (1) analysis of data describing and comparing outcomes across hospitalized children with acute respiratory infections at SickKids; (2) analysis of data describing and comparing outcomes across hospitalized children with varying pathogens and amongst children with co-infections; and (3) manuscript writing of this observational study. The analysis will include examining the impact of age and sex on clinical outcomes of hospitalized children. Depending on scope and scale, the project may only focus on certain pathogens. Working closely with the supervisor and a senior biostatistician, the student will assist in protocol and analysis plan development, data cleaning, data analysis, and in preparing key components of the manuscript (background, methods, results tables and discussion).