Biosurveillance of ED visits for gastroenteritis

Rodriguez, Vashun A.; Silverman, Michael E.; Cochrane, Dennis G.; Eskin, Barnet; Ohman-Strickland, Pamela; Rothman, Jonathan; R. Allegra, John

doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2006.09.017

« Previous Next »American Journal of Emergency Medicine
Volume 25, Issue 5 , Pages 535-539, June 2007

Biosurveillance of ED visits for gastroenteritis☆

We presented these results at the SAEM annual meeting, May 2003.

Vashun A. Rodriguez, MD, MPH
- UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Michael E. Silverman, MD
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, NJ 07960, USA
- Emergency Medical Associates of New Jersey Research Foundation, Livingston, NJ 07039, USA
Dennis G. Cochrane, MD
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, NJ 07960, USA
- Emergency Medical Associates of New Jersey Research Foundation, Livingston, NJ 07039, USA
Barnet Eskin, MD, PhD
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, NJ 07960, USA
- Emergency Medical Associates of New Jersey Research Foundation, Livingston, NJ 07039, USA
Pamela Ohman-Strickland, PhD
- UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School/School of Public Health, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA
Jonathan Rothman, MBA
- Emergency Medical Associates of New Jersey Research Foundation, Livingston, NJ 07039, USA
John R. Allegra, MD, PhD
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, NJ 07960, USA
- Emergency Medical Associates of New Jersey Research Foundation, Livingston, NJ 07039, USA
- Corresponding author. Department of Emergency Medicine, Morristown Memorial Hospital, Morristown, NJ 07962, USA. Tel.: +1 973 971 8919; fax: +1 973 335 4255.

Received 24 August 2006; accepted 29 September 2006.

Abstract

Objective

Our objective was to characterize emergency department (ED) visits for gastroenteritis by season and age and develop a predictive model.

Methods

We performed a retrospective cohort study of patients seen in 19 EDs from 1988 to 2002. We examined differences in the annual peaks of younger (<60 months) and older (>60 months) age groups and developed a time series regression model.

Results

Of the 5182019 total visits, 88504 were for gastroenteritis. On average, the percentage of gastroenteritis on the peak days was higher in the younger (26%) than older group (4%), and the peaks for the younger group occurred 36 days after those for the older group.

Conclusion

Emergency department visits for gastroenteritis vary greatly by season and age. Our time series predictive model was a good fit to actual incidence patterns. These variations should be accounted for in designing a system to detect bioterrorism and for surveillance of naturally occurring epidemics.