Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:49:34.514Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Monitoring infectious diseases using routine microbiology data I. Study of gastroenteritis in an urban area

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2010

Hilary E. Tillett  and
Mair E. M. Thomas
Hilary E. Tillett
Affiliation:
Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, Public Health Laboratory Service, 61 Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5EQ
Mair E. M. Thomas
Affiliation:
Epidemiological Research Laboratory, Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale Avenue, London NW9 5HT
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Sources of information for monitoring infectious disease are routine data, special surveys and ad hoc investigations. In practice much use is necessarily made of routine notifications and laboratory records although this reporting is often incomplete and may therefore be biased.

In a retrospective study of a 16-year series (up to 1968) of routine records concerning the diagnosis of gastroenteritis at one Public Health Laboratory we found it possible to identify biases. During school outbreaks of dysentery, laboratory investigation of diarrhoea increased appreciably and such response to publicity affects the use of routine data in surveillance. Although the patients examined were probably representative diagnostically, their selection may not have reflected the age incidence of disease. Valid geographical comparisons within the urban area were not feasible because medical practitioners differed in their use of laboratory facilities and in their habits of notification. Nevertheless, as far as can be established retrospectively, these data did reflect time trends in disease incidence and so had value for monitoring purposes.

Several of the biases defined are likely to apply to other sets of routine data. A further communication will describe a statistical method of correcting for quantifiable bias.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 86 , Issue 1 , February 1981 , pp. 49 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

References

REFERENCES

Gruer, R. (1972). Outpatient Services in the Scottish Border Counties. Scottish Health Services Studies No. 23, Scottish Home and Health Department.Google Scholar
Knox, J. D. E., MacNaughton, G., Lawrence, A. R. & Robertson, A. A. (1967). Diagnosis of diarrhoea in general practice. Lancet ii, 1392.Google Scholar
Logan, W. P. D. & Cushion, A. A. (1958). Morbidity Statistics from General Practice, 1. Studies on medical and population subjects, no. 14. Her Majesty's Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Sharp, J. C. M. (1972). The notification of infectious disease. Health Bulletin Scottish Home and Health Department 30, 147.Google ScholarPubMed
Smither, W. J. (1963). Gastroenteritis in general practice. A study of 90 unselected cases. British Medical Journal i, 376.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. J., Howie, J. G. R., Brodie, J. & Porter, I. A. (1975). Use of bacteriological investigations by general practitioners. British Medical Journal iii, 635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. E. M. (1952). Epidemic abdominal colic associated with steatorhoea. British Medical Journal i, 691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. E. M. & Mogford, H. E. (1970). Salmonellosia in general practice. Observation of oases and their households in Enfield. Journal of Hygiene 68, 663.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. E. M. & Tillett, H. E. (1973 a). Dysentery in general practice: a study of cases and their contacts in Enfield and an epidemiological comparison with salmonellosis. Journal of Hygiene 71, 373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, M. E. M. & Tillett, H. E. (1973 b). Sonne dysentery in day schools and nurseries. Journal of Hygiene 71, 593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomas, M. E. M. & Tillett, H. E. (1975). Diarrhoea in general practice: a sixteen-year report of investigations in a microbiology laboratory with epidemiological assessment. Journal of Hygiene 74, 183.Google Scholar
Tillett, H. E. & Thomas, M. E. M. (1974). Culture of the faeces in the diagnosis of Sonne dysentery: a statistical method for estimating the true isolation rate. International Journal of Epidemiology 3, 177.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tillett, H. E. (1977). Ph.D. Thesis, University of London.Google Scholar
Tillett, H. E. (1981). Monitoring infectious diseases using routine microbiology data. II. An example of regression analysis used to study infectious gastroenteritis. Journal of Hygiene 86, 59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuckman, E., Chapple, P. A. L., Franklin, L. M., Manser, I. N., Woodall, J. T., Randall, K. J. & McDonald, J. C. (1962). Acute gastrointestinal illness in general practice. British Medical Journal i, 135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar