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Adults who had bacterial meningitis as children experienced disparities in earnings and education by age 30, highlighting potential long-term socioeconomic impacts.

Adults who had bacterial meningitis as children had lower earnings, more work loss, and less education than matched comparators from the general population, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

“These findings suggest that work ability is reduced in adults diagnosed with bacterial meningitis in childhood with long-lasting costs for the individual patient and society at large,” wrote corresponding author Gustaf Bruze, PhD, and colleagues.

The nationwide Swedish longitudinal cohort study included 2534 adults diagnosed with bacterial meningitis in childhood and 22,806 comparators matched 1:9 for age, sex, and place of residence. Among adults with bacterial meningitis as children, about a third were diagnosed when they were younger than 1 year of age.

Researchers reported that adjusted earnings were lower and work loss was higher among adults between 18 and 34 years of age who had childhood meningitis. Pooled observations for adults 28 years and older showed an average of $1,295 less in annual earnings, representing a 4% reduction relative to comparators. The annual work loss was 13.5 days higher.

“The distribution of work ability suggests that the reduction in work ability was largely driven by a small group of individuals who received full work loss (12 months of annual disability pension) from 20 years of age,” researchers wrote.

Exploratory subgroup analysis by bacterial meningitis cause identified 32.4% cases due to Haemophilus meningitis (Haemophilus influenzae), 15.7% due to meningococcal meningitis (Neisseria meningitidis), 13.7% due to pneumococcal meningitis (Streptococcus pneumoniae), 17.4% due to other causes, and 20.8% due to unspecified bacterial meningitis.

According to the study, earnings reductions were larger relative to comparators with childhood pneumococcal versus meningococcal meningitis. Meanwhile, work loss differed significantly across all three major causes of meningitis: pneumococcal meningitis was linked with the largest increase in work loss, followed by Haemophilus meningitis. Meningococcal meningitis was linked with the smallest work loss increases of the 3.

Exploratory subgroup analysis by age at bacterial meningitis diagnosis found that those who were younger at diagnosis had lower earnings and higher work loss than those diagnosed when older.

Analysis also showed that a high school degree at age 30 was less likely among adults with childhood meningitis. Researchers reported an adjusted odds ratio of 0.68 relative to comparators.