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Multicenter Study
. 2019 Dec 8;9(12):e033239.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-033239.

Prospective cohort study to investigate the burden and transmission of acute gastroenteritis in care homes: epidemiological results

Thomas Inns  1   2 , Anna Pulawska-Czub  2   3 , John P Harris  4   2 , Roberto Vivancos  2   5 , Nicholas J Beeching  2   6   7 , Miren Iturriza-Gomara  2   3 , Sarah J O'Brien  2   8
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Prospective cohort study to investigate the burden and transmission of acute gastroenteritis in care homes: epidemiological results

Thomas Inns et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: To estimate the incidence of gastroenteritis in individuals in care homes.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Five participating care homes in North West England, UK.

Participants: Residents and staff present at the five study care homes between 15 August 2017 and 30 May 2019 (n=268).

Outcome measures: We calculated incidence rates for all gastroenteritis cases per 1000 person-years at risk and per 1000 bed-days at risk. We also calculated the incidence rate of gastroenteritis outbreaks per 100 care homes per year.

Results: In total 45 cases were reported during the surveillance period, equating to 133.7 cases per 1000 person-years at risk. In residents the incidence rate was 0.62 cases per 1000 bed-days. We observed seven outbreaks in all care homes included in surveillance, a rate of 76.4 outbreaks per 100 care homes per year. 15 stool samples were tested; three were positive for norovirus, no other pathogens were detected.

Conclusions: We found that surveillance of infectious gastroenteritis disease in care homes based on outbreaks, the current general approach, detected a majority of cases of gastroenteritis. However, if policymakers are to estimate the burden of infectious gastroenteritis in this setting using only routine outbreak surveillance data and not accounting for non-outbreak cases, this study implies that the total burden will be underestimated.

Keywords: epidemiology; gastroenteritis; norovirus; outbreaks; surveillance; viral gastroenteritis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Location of study sites, England, 2017–2019.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Epidemic curve showing distribution of cases by month and study care home.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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