Comparison of hospital admission rates (co-primary outcome)
We found no difference in the rate of hospital admissions at 0.013 (0.010 to 0.018) and 0.015 (0.012 to 0.020) for the intervention and control arms, respectively. This translates into 13 or 15 admissions a year per 1000 children, and the rate ratio was 0.952 (0.905 to 1.003). As 1.003 lies below the 1.01 non-inferiority margin we set, the intervention was considered non-inferior. Pre-specified sensitivity analyses that incorporated hospital admissions with “missing diagnosis” did not change these results (supplementary table A). The seasonal winter peak of hospital admissions was absent during the pandemic (