Publication
Title
Influenza epidemic surveillance and prediction based on electronic health record data from an out-of-hours general practitioner cooperative : model development and validation on 2003-2015 data
Author
Abstract
Background: Annual influenza epidemics significantly burden health care. Anticipating them allows for timely preparation. The Scientific Institute of Public Health in Belgium (WIV-ISP) monitors the incidence of influenza and influenza-like illnesses (ILIs) and reports on a weekly basis. General practitioners working in out-of-hour cooperatives (OOH GPCs) register diagnoses of ILIs in an instantly accessible electronic health record (EHR) system. This article has two objectives: to explore the possibility of modelling seasonal influenza epidemics using EHR ILI data from the OOH GPC Deurne-Borgerhout, Belgium, and to attempt to develop a model accurately predicting new epidemics to complement the national influenza surveillance by WIV-ISP. Method: Validity of the OOH GPC data was assessed by comparing OOH GPC ILI data with WIV-ISP ILI data for the period 20032012 and using Pearsons correlation. The best fitting prediction model based on OOH GPC data was developed on 20032012 data and validated on 20122015 data. A comparison of this model with other well-established surveillance methods was performed. A 1-week and one-season ahead prediction was formulated. Results: In the OOH GPC, 72,792 contacts were recorded from 2003 to 2012 and 31,844 from 2012 to 2015. The mean ILI diagnosis/week was 4.77 (IQR 3.00) and 3.44 (IQR 3.00) for the two periods respectively. Correlation between OOHs and WIV-ISP ILI incidence is high ranging from 0.83 up to 0.97. Adding a secular trend (5 year cycle) and using a first-order autoregressive modelling for the epidemic component together with the use of Poisson likelihood produced the best prediction results. The selected model had the best 1-week ahead prediction performance compared to existing surveillance methods. The prediction of the starting week was less accurate (±3 weeks) than the predicted duration of the next season. Conclusion: OOH GPC data can be used to predict influenza epidemics both accurately and fast 1-week and one-season ahead. It can also be used to complement the national influenza surveillance to anticipate optimal preparation.
Language
English
Source (journal)
BMC infectious diseases. - London
Publication
London : 2017
ISSN
1471-2334
DOI
10.1186/S12879-016-2175-X
Volume/pages
17 (2017) , 8 p.
Article Reference
84
ISI
000397347000002
Pubmed ID
28100186
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 19.01.2017
Last edited 09.10.2023
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