Bacterial Meningitis Management in UK Infants 2010-2013

97 cases of bacterial meningitis in infants under 90 days old from England and Wales between July 2010 and July 2013. The dataset, from a retrospective medical case note review, includes details on symptoms, management timelines, and clinical outcomes. It captures metrics like time from symptom onset to first help and time from triage to first antibiotic dose.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between presenting symptoms like fever or seizures and the time from triage to first antibiotic dose.
• Model the risk of poor outcome (death or neurological complication) using independent risk factors such as seizures at presentation.
• Compare pre-hospital management appropriateness (30% deemed inappropriate) against post-hospital outcomes for infants admitted from home.
• Evaluate the median time from symptom onset to first help (5 hours) across different infant subgroups, such as those already in hospital versus admitted from home.

Strengths

• Contains 97 detailed case records of a rare but serious condition in a vulnerable population.
• Provides specific temporal metrics like median time to first antibiotic dose (2.0 hours) with interquartile ranges.
• Includes expert panel review of case management adequacy compared to national guidelines.
• Covers a defined 3-year study period (July 2010 to July 2013) across England and Wales.

Limitations

• Small sample size of 97 cases limits statistical power for subgroup analyses.
• Retrospective design based on medical notes and parental recall may introduce reporting bias.
• Geographic scope is limited to England and Wales, potentially limiting generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Dryad digital repository.

Collection Method

Retrospective medical case note review and parental recall using standardized questionnaires.

Time Range

July 2010 to July 2013.

Freshness

Data current through 2013, last updated in the repository in 2020.

Geography

England and Wales.