Correlation between national surveillance and search engine query data on respiratory syncytial virus infections in Japan

Background The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) disease burden is significant, especially in infants and children with an underlying disease. Prophylaxis with palivizumab is recommended for these high-risk groups. Early recognition of a RSV epidemic is important for timely administration of palivizumab. We herein aimed to assess the correlation between national surveillance and Google Trends data pertaining to RSV infections in Japan. Methods The present, retrospective survey was performed between January 1, 2018 and November 14, 2021 and evaluated the correlation between national surveillance data and Google Trends data. Joinpoint regression was used to identify the points at which changes in trends occurred. Results A strong correlation was observed every study year (2018 [r = 0.87, p < 0.01], 2019 [r = 0.83, p < 0.01], 2020 [r = 0.83, p < 0.01], and 2021 [r = 0.96, p < 0.01]). The change-points in the Google Trends data indicating the start of the RSV epidemic were observed earlier than by sentinel surveillance in 2018 and 2021 and simultaneously with sentinel surveillance in 2019. No epidemic surge was observed in either the Google Trends or the surveillance data from 2020. Conclusions Our data suggested that Google Trends has the potential to enable the early identification of RSV epidemics. In countries without a national surveillance system, Google Trends may serve as an alternative early warning system

Terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten internetin tiedonhaku infektioepidemioiden seurannassa

The aim of this study was to analyze online information seeking by healthcare professionals (HCPs) in order to both evaluate its extent and assess whether it can be used in clinically relevant settings, such as epidemiology. HCPs need reliable medical information to be used in daily clinical work. Physician’s Databases (PD) serve as online medical sources that are available throughout the Finnish healthcare system and provide medical information for HCPs performing the searches. Every query is included in the log files of PD. To analyze information needs among various HCPs, the queries in different healthcare sectors (primary care, specialized care, pharmacies, and private care) showed the known characteristics of each sector in terms of the time of day, weekdays, weekends, seasons, and quantities of HCPs working in a specific healthcare sector nationwide. To detect infectious disease epidemics, similar patterns were found between the diagnoses and queries of Lyme borreliosis (LB) performed by both HCPs and the general public. The media publications on LB only occasionally related to queries. HCPs’ queries on oseltamivir and influenza showed similar patterns annually compared with the diagnoses and laboratory reports on influenza. When detecting influenza epidemics, the queries on oseltamivir preceded influenza diagnoses by -0.80 weeks (95% CI: -1.0, 0.0, p = 0.000) with high correlation (tau = 0.943); and the queries on influenza preceded oseltamivir queries by -0.80 weeks (95% CI: -1.2, 0.0, p = 0.015) with high correlation (tau = 0.738) and influenza diagnoses by -1.60 weeks (95% CI: -1.8, -1.0, p = 0.000) with high correlation (tau = 0.894). Assessing the log files of PD, and comparing them with epidemiological registers on infectious diseases, heralds a new approach for using HCPs’ online queries from real-time databases as an additional source of information for disease surveillance when detecting epidemics.Väitöskirjan tavoitteena oli tutkia terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten tiedonhakua ja sen yhteyttä infektioepidemioihin. Duodecimin Terveysportin Lääkärin tietokannat on internetpohjainen tietolähde terveydenhuollon ammattilaisille, jotka hakevat luotettavaa lääketieteellistä tietoa potilaiden hoitoon. Jokainen haku tallentuu tietokannan lokitietoihin. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli arvioida sekä tiedonhaun laajuutta että sen hyödynnettävyyttä esimerkiksi infektioepidemiologiassa. Tutkimuksessa (1) arvioitiin terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten tiedontarvetta tutkimalla eri terveydenhuollon sektoreilla (perusterveydenhuolto, erikoissairaanhoito, apteekit ja yksityissektori) tapahtuvaa tiedonhakua Lääkärin tietokannoista. Niin haun vuorokaudenajan, viikonpäivän, vuodenajan kuin sektorilla työskentelevien ammattilaisten määrän todettiin olevan ominaisia kullekin sektorille. Tämän jälkeen (2) verrattiin Lääkärin tietokantojen Lymen borrelioosi -hakuja ja Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitoksen rekisterin borrelioosidiagnooseja toisiinsa. Niillä havaittiin ajallinen yhteys: haut ja diagnoosit ilmenevät samaan aikaan. Tämä tarkoittaa, että ammattilaisten hakuja voitaisiin hyödyntää epidemioiden seurannassa perinteisten rekistereiden rinnalla. Tutkimuksessa myös (3) verrattiin ammattilaisten Lääkärin tietokantojen Lymen borrelioosi -hakuja ja maallikoiden Terveyskirjaston Lymen borrelioosi -hakuja toisiinsa. Niissäkin toteutui samanlainen ajallinen yhteys, joka noudatti perinteistä infektioepidemiologista rekisteriä borrelioosista. Suurimpien suomalaisten medioiden verkkosivuilta kerättiin borrelioosiin liittyvät mediajulkaisut, ja ne olivat yhteydessä Terveyskirjaston Lymen borrelioosi -hakuihin vain ajoittain. Borrelioosin medianäkyvyys saattaa kuitenkin vaikuttaa sekä ammattilaisten että maallikoiden internetin tiedonhakuun. Lopuksi (4) tutkittiin terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten Lääkärin tietokantojen influenssahakuja ja Duodecimin lääketietokannan oseltamiviirihakuja. Niillä todettiin yhteys Terveyden ja hyvinvoinnin laitoksen influenssadiagnooseihin ja laboratoriolöydöksiin. Tämä tarkoittaa, että kun oseltamiviirihaut edelsivät ajallisesti influenssadiagnooseja ja kun influenssahaut edelsivät sekä oseltamiviirihakuja että influenssadiagnooseja, niin ammattilaisten hakuja tietokannasta voitaisiin hyödyntää influenssaepidemioiden seurannassa. Lokitietojen vertaaminen infektioepidemiologisiin rekistereihin tuo uutta tietoa terveydenhuollon ammattilaisten internetin tiedonhausta. Hakutietoa on mahdollista hyödyntää perinteisten rekistereiden rinnalla infektiotautien ennakoinnissa ja seurannassa

Emerg Infect Dis

PMC4550154611

Respiratory Tract Infections in Children with Down's Syndrome

BACKGROUND: Children with Down’s Syndrome (DS) are prone to respiratory tract infections (RTIs), yet there is little evidence to guide clinical practice. AIMS: For children with and without DS, this thesis aims to use routinely collected data to identify RTI-related healthcare utilisation, those most at risk of RTI-related healthcare utilisation, and the effects of antibiotics in preventing RTI-related hospitalisation. METHODS: A systematic review of existing interventions and a retrospective cohort study based on routinely collected primary and secondary care data (CALIBER). KEY FINDINGS: The CALIBER cohort comprised 992 children with DS and 4874 controls. Children with DS consulted their GP for RTIs twice as often as controls, were prescribed antibiotics twice as often, and were hospitalized six times as often. In children with DS, younger age, congenital heart disease and asthma were risk factors for RTI-related healthcare utilisation. Using multivariate analysis, this study found that for infants with DS, the prescription of antibiotics significantly reduced subsequent RTI-related hospitalisation - the number needed to treat is 11.9. Separate analysis, inverse probability of treatment weighting, found that the protective effect for infants with DS was not significant. When prescriptions were analysed by type of RTI, the prescription of antibiotics for upper RTIs did not reduce the risk of hospitalization for children with DS or controls. This was also the case for lower RTIs, although with a small sample. CONCLUSION: For children with DS over the age of one presenting with RTIs to primary care, antibiotic treatment does not prevent subsequent RTI-related hospitalisation. There is conflicting evidence from two separate analysis methods as to whether treating infants with DS with antibiotics prevents RTI-related hospitalisation, so further research is recommended. Further prescribing strategies (i.e. rescue antibiotics) should be explored to broaden the evidence base for this at-risk group

Hospital-Based Implementation of Newborn Hearing Screening in a Cohort of Infants Admitted to the NICU: Outcomes and Implications for Policy and Practice

Hearing loss affects approximately 1-3 live births per 1,000. Infants admitted to the NICU are at greater risk of hearing loss than infants in the newborn nursery. Family history, as well as very low birth weight and exposure to certain therapies such as assisted ventilation, are also risk factors associated with hearing loss. Many states mandate newborn screening for hearing loss after birth due to evidence that early diagnosis and intervention improve communication skills and school performance, but following these infants over time can be challenging. This retrospective study describes temporal trends in primary screening outcomes including screening rates, loss to follow-up, and screen sensitivity and specificity. It also evaluated the likelihood of newborn hearing screening, loss to follow-up, false-positive and false-negative results, as well as hearing loss diagnosis among at-risk infants. Time-to-diagnosis for infants with and without screening was also assessed. The study utilizes a database of births and follow-up encounters for infants born in a large Texas integrated health system between 1996 and 2007. Most newborn hearing screening program outcomes have improved since implementation in 1996. Outcomes differ by group, with black infants having higher probabilities of being lost to follow-up and receiving a false-positive result, but a lower probability of hearing loss than the overall study population. Infants diagnosed with persistent pulmonary hypertension had a higher probability of a false-negative result. Infants with craniofacial anomalies and neonatal infections have 5-7 times higher probability of hearing loss than those without the diagnoses. The overall incidence of hearing loss among the study population was 5%. Survival estimates demonstrate that infants identified through screening have a higher probability of early diagnosis. Infants with false-negative screens have the same probability of early diagnosis as infants with no screen. The study findings can inform both policy and practice. Newborn hearing screening leads to earlier diagnosis of infants with hearing loss, but improving targeted follow-up of high risk NICU infants may lead to earlier diagnosis of infants with delayed onset of hearing loss. Community-based providers can monitor high risk NICU infants after discharge for potential hearing loss

International Society for Disease Surveillance Conference 2011: Building the Future of Public Health Surveillance: Building the Future of Public Health Surveillance

Daniel Reidpath - ORCID: 0000-0002-8796-0420 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8796-04204pubpub1117