| Authors | Charmaine Gauci MD., MPH., Ph.D H Gilles S O'Brien Julian Mamo MD. Isabel Stabile LRCP., MRCS., FRCOG., Ph.D F M Ruggeri N Calleja MD A Gatt G Spiteri |
| Abstract | Routine sources of information on infectious intestinal disease (IID) capture a fraction of the actual disease burden. Population studies are required to measure the burden of illness. A retrospective age-stratified cross-sectional telephone study was carried out in Malta in order to estimate the magnitude and distribution of IID at population level. A random sample of 3504 persons was interviewed by a structured questionnaire between April 2004 and December 2005. The response rate was 99.7%. From the study, the observed standardized monthly prevalence was 3.18% (95% CI 0.7-5.74) with 0.421 (95% CI 0.092-0.771) episodes of IID per person per year. The monthly prevalence was higher in the <5 years age group and in females aged 31-44 years. The mean duration of illness was 6.8 days and a median duration of 3 days. A bimodal seasonal distribution was observed with peaks in June-July and October-November. |
Published in: | |
| Journal | Epidemiol Infect. |
| Volume | |
| Pages | 1 - 8 |
| Date | 15/01/2007 |
| Key words | disease burden, infectious intestinal disease, prevalence, seasonal distribution |