Dailey Lynne, Watkins Rochelle E, Plant Aileen J
Australian Biosecurity CRC for Emerging Infectious Disease, Division of Health Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.
J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2007 Sep-Oct;14(5):626-31. doi: 10.1197/jamia.M2328. Epub 2007 Jun 28.
In recent years, influenza surveillance data has expanded to include alternative sources such as emergency department data, absenteeism reports, pharmaceutical sales, website access and health advice calls. This study presents a review of alternative data sources for influenza surveillance, summarizes the time advantage or timeliness of each source relative to traditional reporting and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of competing approaches.
A literature search was conducted on Medline to identify relevant articles published after 1990. A total of 15 articles were obtained that reported the timeliness of an influenza surveillance system. Timeliness was described by peak comparison, aberration detection comparison and correlation.
Overall, the data sources were highly correlated with traditional sources and had variable timeliness. Over-the-counter pharmaceutical sales, emergency visits, absenteeism and health calls appear to be more timely than physician diagnoses, sentinel influenza-like-illness surveillance and virological confirmation.
The methods used to describe timeliness vary greatly between studies and hence no strong conclusions regarding the most timely source/s of data can be reached. Future studies should apply the aberration detection method to determine data source timeliness in preference to the peak comparison method and correlation.
近年来，流感监测数据已扩展至包括诸如急诊科数据、缺勤报告、药品销售、网站访问量及健康咨询热线等其他来源。本研究对流感监测的其他数据来源进行综述，总结各来源相对于传统报告方式的时间优势或及时性，并讨论不同方法的优缺点。
在Medline上进行文献检索，以识别1990年后发表的相关文章。共获得15篇报告流感监测系统及时性的文章。及时性通过峰值比较、异常检测比较和相关性来描述。
总体而言，这些数据来源与传统来源高度相关，且及时性各不相同。非处方药品销售、急诊就诊、缺勤情况及健康咨询热线似乎比医生诊断、流感样疾病哨点监测及病毒学确认更具及时性。
不同研究用于描述及时性的方法差异很大，因此无法就最具及时性的数据来源得出强有力的结论。未来研究应优先采用异常检测方法而非峰值比较法和相关性来确定数据来源的及时性。
