Cooper D L, Smith G E, O'Brien S J, Hollyoak V A, Baker M
The Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (West Midlands), 2nd Floor, Lincoln House, Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Bordesley Green, Birmingham, B9 5SS, UK.
J Infect. 2003 Feb;46(2):101-5. doi: 10.1053/jinf.2002.1090.
Most gastrointestinal (GI) illness within the UK goes undetected by routine surveillance. A national telephone helpline for health advice (NHS Direct) offers a new source of data on GI infection. We aim to describe NHS Direct calls suggestive of GI infection and the outcome of these calls.
Details of over 150000 telephone calls were collected from NHS Direct over a 6-month period. Calls about 'diarrhoea', 'vomiting' or 'food poisoning' were defined as GI calls and described according to the age of the patient and call outcome.
Gastrointestinal calls accounted for 10.3% of total calls ('diarrhoea'=4.9%, 'vomiting'=5.1%). GI calls as a proportion of total calls were significantly high in children under 1 year (23.5%) and aged 1-4 years (21.5%). Call outcomes which resulted in further NHS care being recommended accounted for 72.3% of total calls and 54.5% of GI calls.
A high proportion of NHS Direct calls were about GI symptoms especially for children under 5 years. When compared with all NHS Direct calls, GI calls were less likely to result in further NHS care being recommended. Analysis of NHS Direct calls provides further insight into GI infection in the community.
英国大多数胃肠道疾病在常规监测中未被发现。一条提供健康建议的全国性电话热线（英国国民医疗服务体系直接服务热线）提供了有关胃肠道感染的新数据来源。我们旨在描述英国国民医疗服务体系直接服务热线中提示胃肠道感染的来电情况以及这些来电的结果。
在6个月的时间里，从英国国民医疗服务体系直接服务热线收集了超过150000个电话的详细信息。将有关“腹泻”“呕吐”或“食物中毒”的电话定义为胃肠道相关来电，并根据患者年龄和来电结果进行描述。
胃肠道相关来电占总来电的10.3%（“腹泻”占4.9%，“呕吐”占5.1%）。1岁以下儿童（23.5%）和1至4岁儿童（21.5%）的胃肠道相关来电占总来电的比例显著较高。导致建议进一步接受英国国民医疗服务体系护理的来电结果占总来电的72.3%，占胃肠道相关来电的54.5%。
英国国民医疗服务体系直接服务热线中很大一部分来电是关于胃肠道症状的，尤其是5岁以下儿童。与所有英国国民医疗服务体系直接服务热线来电相比，胃肠道相关来电导致建议进一步接受英国国民医疗服务体系护理的可能性较小。对英国国民医疗服务体系直接服务热线来电的分析为社区中的胃肠道感染提供了进一步的见解。
