Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study.
Background Syndromic surveillance through web or phone-based polling has been used to track the course of infectious diseases worldwide. Our study objective was to describe the characteristics, symptoms, and self-reported testing rates of respondents in three different COVID-19 symptom surveys in Ca...
Published in: | PLOS ONE |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 https://doaj.org/article/a03e75b0de3f45e4810fc3cf349f9165 |
id |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a03e75b0de3f45e4810fc3cf349f9165 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a03e75b0de3f45e4810fc3cf349f9165 2023-05-15T16:16:51+02:00 Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw Benjamin Rader Christina M Astley Jared B Hawkins Deepit Bhatia William J Schatten Todd C Lee Jessica J Liu Noah M Ivers Nathan M Stall Effie Gournis Ashleigh R Tuite David N Fisman Isaac I Bogoch John S Brownstein 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 https://doaj.org/article/a03e75b0de3f45e4810fc3cf349f9165 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 https://doaj.org/article/a03e75b0de3f45e4810fc3cf349f9165 PLoS ONE, Vol 15, Iss 10, p e0239886 (2020) Medicine R Science Q article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 2022-12-31T05:53:27Z Background Syndromic surveillance through web or phone-based polling has been used to track the course of infectious diseases worldwide. Our study objective was to describe the characteristics, symptoms, and self-reported testing rates of respondents in three different COVID-19 symptom surveys in Canada. Methods This was a cross-sectional study using three distinct Canada-wide web-based surveys, and phone polling in Ontario. All three sources contained self-reported information on COVID-19 symptoms and testing. In addition to describing respondent characteristics, we examined symptom frequency and the testing rate among the symptomatic, as well as rates of symptoms and testing across respondent groups. Results We found that over March- April 2020, 1.6% of respondents experienced a symptom on the day of their survey, 15% of Ontario households had a symptom in the previous week, and 44% of Canada-wide respondents had a symptom in the previous month. Across the three surveys, SARS-CoV-2-testing was reported in 2-9% of symptomatic responses. Women, younger and middle-aged adults (versus older adults) and Indigenous/First nations/Inuit/Métis were more likely to report at least one symptom, and visible minorities were more likely to report the combination of fever with cough or shortness of breath. Interpretation The low rate of testing among those reporting symptoms suggests significant opportunity to expand testing among community-dwelling residents of Canada. Syndromic surveillance data can supplement public health reports and provide much-needed context to gauge the adequacy of SARS-CoV-2 testing rates. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations inuit Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Canada PLOS ONE 15 10 e0239886 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Medicine R Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Science Q Lauren Lapointe-Shaw Benjamin Rader Christina M Astley Jared B Hawkins Deepit Bhatia William J Schatten Todd C Lee Jessica J Liu Noah M Ivers Nathan M Stall Effie Gournis Ashleigh R Tuite David N Fisman Isaac I Bogoch John S Brownstein Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study. |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
description |
Background Syndromic surveillance through web or phone-based polling has been used to track the course of infectious diseases worldwide. Our study objective was to describe the characteristics, symptoms, and self-reported testing rates of respondents in three different COVID-19 symptom surveys in Canada. Methods This was a cross-sectional study using three distinct Canada-wide web-based surveys, and phone polling in Ontario. All three sources contained self-reported information on COVID-19 symptoms and testing. In addition to describing respondent characteristics, we examined symptom frequency and the testing rate among the symptomatic, as well as rates of symptoms and testing across respondent groups. Results We found that over March- April 2020, 1.6% of respondents experienced a symptom on the day of their survey, 15% of Ontario households had a symptom in the previous week, and 44% of Canada-wide respondents had a symptom in the previous month. Across the three surveys, SARS-CoV-2-testing was reported in 2-9% of symptomatic responses. Women, younger and middle-aged adults (versus older adults) and Indigenous/First nations/Inuit/Métis were more likely to report at least one symptom, and visible minorities were more likely to report the combination of fever with cough or shortness of breath. Interpretation The low rate of testing among those reporting symptoms suggests significant opportunity to expand testing among community-dwelling residents of Canada. Syndromic surveillance data can supplement public health reports and provide much-needed context to gauge the adequacy of SARS-CoV-2 testing rates. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lauren Lapointe-Shaw Benjamin Rader Christina M Astley Jared B Hawkins Deepit Bhatia William J Schatten Todd C Lee Jessica J Liu Noah M Ivers Nathan M Stall Effie Gournis Ashleigh R Tuite David N Fisman Isaac I Bogoch John S Brownstein |
author_facet |
Lauren Lapointe-Shaw Benjamin Rader Christina M Astley Jared B Hawkins Deepit Bhatia William J Schatten Todd C Lee Jessica J Liu Noah M Ivers Nathan M Stall Effie Gournis Ashleigh R Tuite David N Fisman Isaac I Bogoch John S Brownstein |
author_sort |
Lauren Lapointe-Shaw |
title |
Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study. |
title_short |
Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study. |
title_full |
Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study. |
title_fullStr |
Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Web and phone-based COVID-19 syndromic surveillance in Canada: A cross-sectional study. |
title_sort |
web and phone-based covid-19 syndromic surveillance in canada: a cross-sectional study. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 https://doaj.org/article/a03e75b0de3f45e4810fc3cf349f9165 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
First Nations inuit |
genre_facet |
First Nations inuit |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 15, Iss 10, p e0239886 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 https://doaj.org/article/a03e75b0de3f45e4810fc3cf349f9165 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239886 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
10 |
container_start_page |
e0239886 |
_version_ |
1766002701755219968 |