Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Dec;141(12):2634-43.
doi: 10.1017/S0950268812002956. Epub 2013 Feb 22.

A new surveillance indicator identifying optimal timeliness and accuracy: application to the Korean National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System for 2001-2007

H S Yoo  1 , S I Cho, J K Lee, H K Park, E G Lee, J W Kwon
Affiliations

A new surveillance indicator identifying optimal timeliness and accuracy: application to the Korean National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System for 2001-2007

H S Yoo et al. Epidemiol Infect. 2013 Dec.

Abstract

Although immediate notification of a case is crucial for epidemic control, clinicians may delay notification due to uncertainties in diagnosis, reflecting a trade-off between timeliness and the accuracy of surveillance. We assessed this trade-off for four epidemic-prone diseases that require immediate notification of suspected cases: shigellosis, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and cholera in the Korean National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System data for 2001-2007. Timeliness was measured as the time to registration (T R), being the time interval from symptom onset to notification by the clinician to the local public health centre. We introduced a new index, 'time-accuracy trade-off ratio' to indicate time saved by clinical vs. laboratory-based notifications. Clinical notifications comprised 34.4% of total notifications, and these showed a shorter median T R than laboratory-based notifications (1-4 days). The trade-off ratio was greatest for shigellosis (3.3 days), and smallest for typhoid fever (0.6 days). A higher trade-off ratio provides stronger evidence for clinical notification without waiting for laboratory confirmation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
[colour online]. Notification algorithm of data classification and TR (Korean National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System 2001–2007). TR, time to registration (from symptom onset to clinician's notification to a public health centre); TP, true positive; FP, false positive; UC, unclassified (no laboratory confirmation).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
[colour online]. Conceptual model for estimating TR reduction caused by early notification (Korean National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System 2001–2007). TR, time to registration (from symptom onset to clinician's notification to a public health centre); CD, cumulative distribution of TR (proportion of cases notified within the given time (days); AOC, area over curve (person-days needed for all notifications to take place); AOCdiff, difference in AOCs.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
[colour online]. Cumulative distributions of TR (Korean National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System, 2001–2007). TR, time to registration (from symptom onset to clinician's notification to a public health centre); TP, true positives (in clinical notifications).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Day F, Sutton G. General practitioner notifications of gastroenteritis and food poisoning: cause for concern. Journal of Public Health 2007; 29: 288–291. - PubMed
    1. Schramm MM, Vogt RL, Mamolen M. The surveillance of communicable disease in Vermont: who reports? Public Health Reports 1991; 106: 95–97. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barrett P, Lau YK. Incompleteness of statutory notification of bacterial gastro-intestinal infection. Public Health 1997; 111: 183–185. - PubMed
    1. Clarkson JA, Fine PE. Delays in notification of infectious disease. Health Trends 1987; 19: 9–11. - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Communicable disease surveillance and response systems – Guide to monitoring and evaluating (http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/surveillance/WHO_CDS_EPR_L...). Accessed 18 March 2011.

Publication types

MeSH terms