IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0093744.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hospitalization Records as a Tool for Evaluating Performance of Food- and Water-Borne Disease Surveillance Systems: A Massachusetts Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Siobhan M Mor
  • Alfred DeMaria Jr.
  • Elena N Naumova

Abstract

We outline a framework for evaluating food- and water-borne surveillance systems using hospitalization records, and demonstrate the approach using data on salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis and giardiasis in persons aged ≥65 years in Massachusetts. For each infection, and for each reporting jurisdiction, we generated smoothed standardized morbidity ratios (SMR) and surveillance to hospitalization ratios (SHR) by comparing observed surveillance counts with expected values or the number of hospitalized cases, respectively. We examined the spatial distribution of SHR and related this to the mean for the entire state. Through this approach municipalities that deviated from the typical experience were identified and suspected of under-reporting. Regression analysis revealed that SHR was a significant predictor of SMR, after adjusting for population age-structure. This confirms that the spatial “signal” depicted by surveillance is in part influenced by inconsistent testing and reporting practices since municipalities that reported fewer cases relative to the number of hospitalizations had a lower relative risk (as estimated by SMR). Periodic assessment of SHR has potential in assessing the performance of surveillance systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Siobhan M Mor & Alfred DeMaria Jr. & Elena N Naumova, 2014. "Hospitalization Records as a Tool for Evaluating Performance of Food- and Water-Borne Disease Surveillance Systems: A Massachusetts Case Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-8, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0093744
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093744
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0093744
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0093744&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0093744?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fisher, E.S. & Baron, J.A. & Malenka, D.J. & Barrett, J. & Bubolz, T.A., 1990. "Overcoming potential pitfalls in the use of Medicare data for epidemiologic research," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 80(12), pages 1487-1490.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aishwarya Venkat & Tania M. Alarcon Falconi & Melissa Cruz & Meghan A. Hartwick & Shalini Anandan & Naveen Kumar & Honorine Ward & Balaji Veeraraghavan & Elena N. Naumova, 2019. "Spatiotemporal Patterns of Cholera Hospitalization in Vellore, India," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Emily Sanchez & Ryan B. Simpson & Yutong Zhang & Lauren E. Sallade & Elena N. Naumova, 2022. "Exploring Risk Factors of Recall-Associated Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in the United States, 2009–2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-20, April.
    3. Ninon A. Becquart & Elena N. Naumova & Gitanjali Singh & Kenneth K. H. Chui, 2018. "Cardiovascular Disease Hospitalizations in Louisiana Parishes’ Elderly before, during and after Hurricane Katrina," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Yutong Zhang & Ryan B. Simpson & Lauren E. Sallade & Emily Sanchez & Kyle M. Monahan & Elena N. Naumova, 2022. "Evaluating Completeness of Foodborne Outbreak Reporting in the United States, 1998–2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-19, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Samuel, Laura J. & Glass, Thomas A. & Thorpe, Roland J. & Szanton, Sarah L. & Roth, David L., 2015. "Household and neighborhood conditions partially account for associations between education and physical capacity in the National Health and Aging Trends Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 67-75.
    2. McClellan, Mark & Skinner, Jonathan, 2006. "The incidence of Medicare," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-2), pages 257-276, January.
    3. Julie Lee & Mark McClellan & Jonathan Skinner, 1999. "The Distributional Effects of Medicare," NBER Chapters, in: Tax Policy and the Economy, Volume 13, pages 85-108, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Theodore Iwashyna & James Zhang & Diane Lauderdale & Nicholas Christakis, 1998. "A methodology for identifying married couples in medicare data: Mortality, morbidity, and health care use among the married elderly," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(4), pages 413-419, November.
    5. Jyotsna S. Jagai & Jeffrey K. Griffiths & Paul K. Kirshen & Patrick Webb & Elena N. Naumova, 2012. "Seasonal Patterns of Gastrointestinal Illness and Streamflow along the Ohio River," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-20, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0093744. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.