Abstract
BackgroundAcute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) is an important public-health problem worldwide. Previous national studies of the incidence of AGI in China were performed decades ago, and detailed information was not available. This study therefore sought to determine the magnitude, distribution, and burden of self-reported AGI in China.MethodsTwelve-month, retrospective face-to-face surveys were conducted in 20 sentinel sites from six provinces between July 2010 and July 2011.ResultsIn total, 39686 interviews were completed. The overall adjusted monthly prevalence of AGI was 4.2% (95% confidence interval, 4.0–4.4), corresponding to 0.56 episodes of AGI per person-year. Rates of AGI were highest in children aged < 5 years. Healthcare was sought by 56.1% of those reporting illness. Of the cases who visited a doctor, 32.7% submitted a stool sample. The use of antibiotics was reported by 49.7% of the cases who sought medical care and 54.0% took antidiarrhoeals. In the multivariable model, gender, age, education, household type, residence, season, province and travel were significant risk factors of being a case of AGI.ConclusionsThis first population-based study in China indicated that AGI represents a substantial burden of health. Further research into the specific pathogens is needed to better estimate the burden of AGI and foodborne disease in China.
Highlights
Acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) is an important public-health problem worldwide
AGI is very common in the community, not all cases present to the healthcare system, and not all cases that present are reported to national surveillance [2]
Households were randomly selected from each city block or village using the lottery method and the number of households surveyed was proportional to population size
Summary
Acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) is an important public-health problem worldwide. Previous national studies of the incidence of AGI in China were performed decades ago, and detailed information was not available. This study sought to determine the magnitude, distribution, and burden of self-reported AGI in China. Acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) is an important cause of morbidity and mortality with global dimensions, affecting both developing and developed countries [1]. In developed countries foodborne diseases occur primarily as self-limiting AGI, characterized by diarrhoea or vomiting. Studies estimating the burden of AGI in a population provide the basis for assessing the burden of foodborne disease. AGI is very common in the community, not all cases present to the healthcare system, and not all cases that present are reported to national surveillance [2]. Because many episodes of AGI are not captured by routine data sources, the true
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