22. Public Health Surveillance and Outbreak Investigation Flashcards
ongoing systemic collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination of specific health data for use in public health
disease surveillance
focuses on what is being done (services provided or protocol for health care delivery)
process data
focuses on the changes in health status (did the interventions help)
outcome data
9 uses of public health surveillance
- estimate magnitude of problem
- determine geographic distribution
- portray hx of disease
- detect epidemics
- generate hypotheses
- evaluate control measures
- monitor changes in infectious agents
- detect changes in health practices
- facilitate planning
4 purposes of surveillance
- assess public heath status
- define public health priorities
- evaluate programs
- stimulate research
Data source for mortality
death certificates
Data sources for morbidity
- disease reports
- lab reports
- hospital discharge reports
- billing data
- outpatient health care data
- specialized disease registries and notifiable diseases
- injury surveillance systems
- environmental surveys
3 types of surveillance systems
- passive
- active
- sentinel
surveillance system where care reports or lab reports are sent to local health departments as summaries of data
passive system
Ex. of a passive system
National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (NNDSS)
surveillance system where public health nursing beings searching for cases through local health providers and health care agencies
active system
surveillance system that monitors trends or key health indicators (may be disease, event, or population)
sentinel system
4 objectives of an investigation
- control and prevent disease or death
- identify contributing factors
- prevent occurrences
- define magnitude of problem or event
normal number of cases in an area every year
endemic
when there is more than the usual amount of cases of a disease in an area for a time period
epidemic/outbreak
