Using National Health Interview Survey Data to Detect Signals of Natural or Intentional Outbreaks

• Activity Number: 277
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Abera Wouhib*+ and Paul D. Williams and Joe Fred Gonzalez, Jr. and Myron Katzoff
• Companies: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Center for Health Statistics
• Keywords: symptomatic data ; bioterrorism

Abstract

The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is a household survey which has been conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for four decades. As part of the NHIS, information on head or chest colds, stomach or intestinal illnesses with vomiting and diarrhea are collected. These symptoms are commonly associated with colds and flu, are emerging diseases. However, these may also be initial symptoms for victims of bioterrorism. Since 1997, the NCHS has been collecting data on these common symptoms of illness using a two-week reference period for sampled adults and sampled children in the NHIS. Prevalence estimates for these data could possibly be used as a baseline to detect natural or intentional outbreaks. National Prevalence estimates were computed for each two-week period for sampled adults and children. By pooling the data collected over a five-year period, prevalence estimates were calculated by geographic region for all persons and by gender. Also, sample sizes that are necessary to produce reliable estimates with a specified level of precision for each two-week period were computed.