The burden of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in the community: a survey of self-reported IID in The Netherlands

Abstract

In 2009, a 1-year retrospective survey was performed in The Netherlands to estimate the incidence and the disease burden of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in the community, to study the selection of patients consulting a general practitioner and to identify potential risk factors for IID in the community. A questionnaire was sent to 6000 persons selected at random from the population registries of 28 municipalities, with 500 persons being approached per month. A total of 1975 (33%) persons participated. The incidence rate of IID was 964/1000 person-years. Potential risk factors associated with IID in the community were young age (0-4 years) [odds ratio (OR) 3.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-10.5], having asthma as a child (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.1-10.3) and use of gastric acid suppressive medication by persons aged ≥ 45 years (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.4-5.6). Of the 146 cases with IID, 11 (8%) consulted a physician. Cases with a long duration of symptoms, blood in the stool, children with IID and cases with a low level of education were more likely to consult a physician. Two cases had a stool sample taken and one was admitted to hospital. In conclusion, IID is common and has a significant burden of illness in The Netherlands. Our data indicate that about 15.9 million episodes of IID occur in The Netherlands per year. The incidence rate is substantially higher than the rate of 283/1000 person-years as estimated in 1999 in The Netherlands. This is probably largely due to the retrospective nature of the present study and, to a lesser extent, to differences in case definitions.

Community incidence of pathogen-specific gastroenteritis: reconstructing the surveillance pyramid for seven pathogens in seven European Union member states

“…The differences between parameter estimates as based on cross-sectional surveys in participating countries and literature data [5,[19][20][21][22] confirm this hypothesis. However, case numbers with bloody diarrhoea in the telephone surveys were quite small, leading to considerable uncertainty in our results.…”

Influenza-like Illness in Households with Children of Preschool Age

“…and 4558 male (26 months; IQR, 16-38) children, half of which (50.4%) attended DCCs. Median DCC attendance frequency was 2 days/week (IQR, 1-2), and the median duration of DCC attendance was 24 months (IQR, [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Most (98.0%) households had 2 parents and had 2 children (47.2%), followed by those with 1 child (35.0%) and ≥3 children (17.8%).…”

“…The questionnaire was developed based on previous population-based studies in the Netherlands. [15][16][17][18] The degree of urbanization and the socioeconomic status (SES) at the postcode level were obtained from Statistics Netherlands.…”

Potential causative agents of acute gastroenteritis in households with preschool children: prevalence, risk factors, clinical relevance and household transmission

“…Although nowadays acute gastroenteritis (AGE) is hardly a life-threatening illness in high-income countries, it still poses a high morbidity [1], with an estimated community incidence rate of 0.96 episodes of gastroenteritis per person/year in a country like the Netherlands [2]. Children of preschool age are particularly prone to AGE on account of their immunological naivety, immature hygiene behaviours and frequent contacts with peers.…”