Dataset Information

Syndromic surveillance for local outbreak detection and awareness: evaluating outbreak signals of acute gastroenteritis in telephone triage, web-based queries and over-the-counter pharmacy sales.

ABSTRACT: For the purpose of developing a national system for outbreak surveillance, local outbreak signals were compared in three sources of syndromic data--telephone triage of acute gastroenteritis, web queries about symptoms of gastrointestinal illness, and over-the-counter (OTC) pharmacy sales of antidiarrhoeal medication. The data sources were compared against nine known waterborne and foodborne outbreaks in Sweden in 2007-2011. Outbreak signals were identified for the four largest outbreaks in the telephone triage data and the two largest outbreaks in the data on OTC sales of antidiarrhoeal medication. No signals could be identified in the data on web queries. The signal magnitude for the fourth largest outbreak indicated a tenfold larger outbreak than officially reported, supporting the use of telephone triage data for situational awareness. For the two largest outbreaks, telephone triage data on adult diarrhoea provided outbreak signals at an early stage, weeks and months in advance, respectively, potentially serving the purpose of early event detection. In conclusion, telephone triage data provided the most promising source for surveillance of point-source outbreaks.

SUBMITTER: Andersson T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3891475 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Syndromic surveillance for local outbreak detection and awareness: evaluating outbreak signals of acute gastroenteritis in telephone triage, web-based queries and over-the-counter pharmacy sales.

Andersson T T Bjelkmar P P Hulth A A Lindh J J Stenmark S S Widerström M M

Epidemiology and infection 20130515 2

For the purpose of developing a national system for outbreak surveillance, local outbreak signals were compared in three sources of syndromic data--telephone triage of acute gastroenteritis, web queries about symptoms of gastrointestinal illness, and over-the-counter (OTC) pharmacy sales of antidiarrhoeal medication. The data sources were compared against nine known waterborne and foodborne outbreaks in Sweden in 2007-2011. Outbreak signals were identified for the four largest outbreaks in the t ...[more]

PMID: 23672877

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Clinicians have difficulty accurately assessing medication non-adherence within chronic disease care settings. Health information technology (HIT) could offer novel tools to assess medication adherence in diverse populations outside of usual health care settings. In a multilingual urban safety net population, we examined the validity of assessing adherence using automated telephone self-management (ATSM) queries, when compared with non-adherence using continuous medication gap (CMG) on pharmacy claims. We hypothesized that patients reporting greater days of missed pills to ATSM queries would have higher rates of non-adherence as measured by CMG, and that ATSM adherence assessments would perform as well as structured interview assessments. METHODS:As part of an ATSM-facilitated diabetes self-management program, low-income health plan members typed numeric responses to rotating weekly ATSM queries: "In the last 7 days, how many days did you MISS taking your …" diabetes, blood pressure, or cholesterol pill. Research assistants asked similar questions in computer-assisted structured telephone interviews. We measured continuous medication gap (CMG) by claims over 12 preceding months. To evaluate convergent validity, we compared rates of optimal adherence (CMG???20%) across respondents reporting 0, 1, and???2 missed pill days on ATSM and on structured interview. RESULTS:Among 210 participants, 46% had limited health literacy, 57% spoke Cantonese, and 19% Spanish. ATSM respondents reported ?1 missed day for diabetes (33%), blood pressure (19%), and cholesterol (36%) pills. Interview respondents reported ?1 missed day for diabetes (28%), blood pressure (21%), and cholesterol (26%) pills. Optimal adherence rates by CMG were lower among ATSM respondents reporting more missed days for blood pressure (p?=?0.02) and cholesterol (p?<?0.01); by interview, differences were significant for cholesterol (p?=?0.01). CONCLUSIONS:Language-concordant ATSM demonstrated modest potential for assessing adherence. Studies should evaluate HIT assessments of medication beliefs and concerns in diverse populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION:NCT00683020 , registered May 21, 2008.

Dataset Information

Syndromic surveillance for local outbreak detection and awareness: evaluating outbreak signals of acute gastroenteritis in telephone triage, web-based queries and over-the-counter pharmacy sales.

Publications

Syndromic surveillance for local outbreak detection and awareness: evaluating outbreak signals of acute gastroenteritis in telephone triage, web-based queries and over-the-counter pharmacy sales.

Similar Datasets

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