Healthcare-Seeking Behavior for Respiratory Illness Among Flu Near You Participants in the United States During the 2015-2016 Through 2018-2019 Influenza Seasons.
J Infect Dis
; 226(2): 270-277, 2022 08 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32761050
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Flu Near You (FNY) is an online participatory syndromic surveillance system that collects health-related information. In this article, we summarized the healthcare-seeking behavior of FNY participants who reported influenza-like illness (ILI) symptoms.METHODS:
We applied inverse probability weighting to calculate age-adjusted estimates of the percentage of FNY participants in the United States who sought health care for ILI symptoms during the 2015-2016 through 2018-2019 influenza season and compared seasonal trends across different demographic and regional subgroups, including age group, sex, census region, and place of care using adjusted χâ2 tests.RESULTS:
The overall age-adjusted percentage of FNY participants who sought healthcare for ILI symptoms varied by season and ranged from 22.8% to 35.6%. Across all seasons, healthcare seeking was highest for the <18 and 65+ years age groups, women had a greater percentage compared with men, and the South census region had the largest percentage while the West census region had the smallest percentage.CONCLUSIONS:
The percentage of FNY participants who sought healthcare for ILI symptoms varied by season, geographical region, age group, and sex. FNY compliments existing surveillance systems and informs estimates of influenza-associated illness by adding important real-time insights into healthcare-seeking behavior.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Influenza, Human
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
America do norte
Language:
En
Journal:
J Infect Dis
Year:
2022
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States