Robustness of the healthcare utilization results from the Rotavirus Efficacy and Safety Trial (REST) evaluating the human-bovine (WC3) reassortant pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5)

Robbin Itzler,Penny M Heaton,Pierre Van Damme,Leif Gothefors,Gary Koch,Mark J Dinubile,David O Matson

doi:10.1186/1471-2431-10-42

Abstract

BackgroundThe Rotavirus Efficacy and Safety Trial was a placebo-controlled Phase III study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of a three-dose pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) including its effect on healthcare utilization for rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE). The per-protocol (PP) analyses, which counted events occurring 14 days after dose 3 among infants without protocol violations, have already been published. This paper evaluates the consistency of the healthcare utilization results based on the modified intention to treat (MITT) analyses with the PP analyses. The MITT analyses include all infants receiving at least one dose of vaccine or placebo and follow-up begins after dose 1. The paper also explores the consistency of the results for different subgroups of the study population with different types of surveillance.MethodsData on healthcare utilization for acute gastroenteritis were collected via telephone interviews after administration of the first dose. Parents were either contacted every 6 weeks or every 2 weeks depending on the substudy in which they were enrolled. Those contacted every 2 weeks were also asked to complete symptom diaries. Poisson regression was used to evaluate the effect of RV5 on the rates of RVGE-associated healthcare encounters in all of the analyses.ResultsIn the first 2 years after vaccination, RV5 reduced the combined rate of hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits 88.9% (95% CI: 84.9, 91.9) for all RVGE regardless of serotype in the MITT analysis compared with a 94.5% (95% CI: 91.2, 96.6) reduction based on the G1-G4 PP analysis. By type of surveillance, the rate reductions for the G1-G4 PP analysis were 91.0% (95% CI: 81.7, 95.5) and 95.9% (95% CI: 92.2, 97.8) among parents contacted every 2 weeks (number evaluable = 4,451) and every 6 weeks (number evaluable = 52,683) respectively.ConclusionsOur analyses demonstrated that the effect of RV5 on reducing the rate of hospitalizations and ED visits based on the MITT analyses were generally consistent with the PP analyses. The rate of events for subgroups with different intensities of surveillance differed but the effect of RV5 on the relative rate reductions were consistent with the results that have already been published.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00090233

Highlights

The Rotavirus Efficacy and Safety Trial was a placebo-controlled Phase III study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of a three-dose pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) including its effect on healthcare utilization for rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE)
Study design and case definitions In Rotavirus Efficacy and Safety Trial (REST), infants were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive either vaccine or visibly indistinguishable placebo starting at 6-12 weeks of age, followed by two more doses at 4-10 week intervals up to 32 weeks of age [10,20]
Infants included in the modified intention to treat (MITT) and PP analyses Data for 69,274 randomly assigned infants were available in the REST clinical database at the time the Data and Safety Monitoring Board determined that the study had satisfied its criterion for stopping enrollment associated with the primary safety endpoint assessing the risk of intussception among vaccine recipients

Summary

Introduction

The Rotavirus Efficacy and Safety Trial was a placebo-controlled Phase III study that evaluated the safety and efficacy of a three-dose pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5) including its effect on healthcare utilization for rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE). This paper evaluates the consistency of the healthcare utilization results based on the modified intention to treat (MITT) analyses with the PP analyses. The MITT analyses include all infants receiving at least one dose of vaccine or placebo and follow-up begins after dose 1. Prior to the introduction of rotavirus vaccines, rotavirus gastroenteritis (RVGE) was the most common cause of severe gastroenteritis in infants and young children. Almost every child has been infected with rotavirus by 5 years of age in both developing and industrialized countries [1]. Hospitalization rates had been high prior to the introduction of vaccination programs [3]. In the United States, for example, rotavirus activity follows a distinct winter-spring seasonal pattern [8]

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