Enhancing syndromic surveillance with on-line respondent driven detection

Stein, M.L., van Steenbergen, J.E., Buskens, V., van der Heijden, P., Koppeschaar, C.E., Bengtsson, L., Thorson, A.E. and Kretzschmar, M.E.E. (2015) Enhancing syndromic surveillance with on-line respondent driven detection. American Journal of Public Health, 105 (8), e90-e97. (doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302717). (PMID:26066940)

Abstract

Objectives: we investigated the feasibility of combining an online chain recruitment method (respondent-driven detection) and participatory surveillance panels to collect previously undetected information on infectious diseases via social networks of participants.

Methods: In 2014, volunteers from 2 large panels in the Netherlands were invited to complete a survey focusing on symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections and to invite 4 individuals they had met in the preceding 2 weeks to take part in the study. We compared sociodemographic characteristics among panel participants, individuals who volunteered for our survey, and individuals recruited via respondent-driven detection.

Results: starting from 1015 panel members, the survey spread through all provinces of the Netherlands and all age groups in 83 days. A total of 433 individuals completed the survey via peer recruitment. Participants who reported symptoms were 6.1% (95% confidence interval?=?5.4, 6.9) more likely to invite contact persons than were participants who did not report symptoms. Participants with symptoms invited more symptomatic recruits to take part than did participants without symptoms.

Conclusions: our findings suggest that online respondent-driven detection can enhance identification of symptomatic patients by making use of individuals’ local social networks.

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Contributors

Author: P. van der Heijden

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