Influenzanet: Citizens Among 10 Countries Collaborating to Monitor Influenza in Europe.
Influenzanet: Citizens Among 10 Countries Collaborating to Monitor Influenza in Europe.
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DOI：
10.2196/publichealth.7429
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发表时间：
2017-09-19
影响因子：
8.5
通讯作者：
Franco, Ana O
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Koppeschaar, Carl E;Colizza, Vittoria;Franco, Ana O
背景：互联网的广泛使用和数字通信技术的发展已经成为流行病学研究和健康监测的重要工具。流感网是一个参与性监测系统，自2003年以来监测欧洲流感样疾病（ILI）的发病率。它基于志愿者在整个流感季节通过互联网自我报告其症状所提供的数据，目前涉及10个国家。目的：在本文中，我们描述了Influenzanet系统，并概述了对收集到的数据进行的几项分析的结果，其中包括参与者代表性分析、数据验证（比较Influenzanet和哨点医疗实践网络之间的ILI发病率）、ILI危险因素的识别以及先前发表的流感疫苗有效性（VE）研究。此外，我们为荷兰提供了新的VE分析，按年龄和慢性疾病分层，并就参与式系统的连续性和可持续性提出了进一步工作和考虑的建议。方法：Influenzanet由特定国家的网站组成，居民可以在网站上注册成为支持流感监测的志愿者，并获得与流感相关的信息。通过不同的沟通渠道招募参与者。注册后，志愿者提交一份包含邮政编码、社会人口统计学和医学特征的调查问卷，之后他们被邀请通过每周电子通讯提醒报告他们的症状。每年有数千名参与者参与Influenzanet，仅在2015-16赛季就有超过36,000名志愿者。结果：总的来说，对于某些特征和在某些国家（例如，荷兰的流感疫苗接种率），Influenzanet参与者代表了一般人群。然而，对于其他特征，他们没有（例如，参与者没有充分代表7个国家中最年轻和最年长的年龄组）。流感网的ILI发病率被发现密切相关，尽管在数量上高于哨点医疗实践网络。确定了感染ILI的各种危险因素。利用Influenzanet数据进行的VE研究表明，这一监测系统可以发展成为衡量流感疫苗有效性的补充工具，最终实现实时监测。结论：这些分析结果表明，Influenzanet已经发展成为一种快速灵活的监测系统，可以补充哨点医疗实践执行的传统流感监测。流感网的统一性使各国之间可以直接比较流行性感冒发病率。它还具有产生个人数据的重要优势，这些数据可用于识别风险因素。流感网系统的构建方式允许收集数据，这些数据可以扩展到ILI病例之外，以监测大流行性流感和其他常见或新出现的疾病。
BACKGROUND: The wide availability of the Internet and the growth of digital communication technologies have become an important tool for epidemiological studies and health surveillance. Influenzanet is a participatory surveillance system monitoring the incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI) in Europe since 2003. It is based on data provided by volunteers who self-report their symptoms via the Internet throughout the influenza season and currently involves 10 countries.OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we describe the Influenzanet system and provide an overview of results from several analyses that have been performed with the collected data, which include participant representativeness analyses, data validation (comparing ILI incidence rates between Influenzanet and sentinel medical practice networks), identification of ILI risk factors, and influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) studies previously published. Additionally, we present new VE analyses for the Netherlands, stratified by age and chronic illness and offer suggestions for further work and considerations on the continuity and sustainability of the participatory system.METHODS: Influenzanet comprises country-specific websites where residents can register to become volunteers to support influenza surveillance and have access to influenza-related information. Participants are recruited through different communication channels. Following registration, volunteers submit an intake questionnaire with their postal code and sociodemographic and medical characteristics, after which they are invited to report their symptoms via a weekly electronic newsletter reminder. Several thousands of participants have been engaged yearly in Influenzanet, with over 36,000 volunteers in the 2015-16 season alone.RESULTS: In summary, for some traits and in some countries (eg, influenza vaccination rates in the Netherlands), Influenzanet participants were representative of the general population. However, for other traits, they were not (eg, participants underrepresent the youngest and oldest age groups in 7 countries). The incidence of ILI in Influenzanet was found to be closely correlated although quantitatively higher than that obtained by the sentinel medical practice networks. Various risk factors for acquiring an ILI infection were identified. The VE studies performed with Influenzanet data suggest that this surveillance system could develop into a complementary tool to measure the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine, eventually in real time.CONCLUSIONS: Results from these analyses illustrate that Influenzanet has developed into a fast and flexible monitoring system that can complement the traditional influenza surveillance performed by sentinel medical practices. The uniformity of Influenzanet allows for direct comparison of ILI rates between countries. It also has the important advantage of yielding individual data, which can be used to identify risk factors. The way in which the Influenzanet system is constructed allows the collection of data that could be extended beyond those of ILI cases to monitor pandemic influenza and other common or emerging diseases.