ArticlePloS one2012
Comparison: Flu prescription sales data from a retail pharmacy in the US with Google Flu trends and US ILINet (CDC) data as flu activity indicator.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Application of Internet-Based Sources for Public Health Surveillance (Infoveillance): Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Real-time digital prescriptions unlock influenza dynamics: evidence from 21 million transactions.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Feasibility of using community pharmacy sales of over-the-counter respiratory products as a syndromic surveillance indicator: a pilot study from Sofia, Bulgaria.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The potential roles of pharmacy medication sales data to augment the syndromic surveillance system in response to COVID-19 and preparedness for other future infectious disease outbreaks in Indonesia.The International journal of health planning and management · 2022Article
- Suggestion of a simpler and faster influenza-like illness surveillance system using 2014-2018 claims data in Korea.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- An Integrated Influenza Surveillance Framework Based on National Influenza-Like Illness Incidence and Multiple Hospital Electronic Medical Records for Early Prediction of Influenza Epidemics: Design and Evaluation.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Article
- The potential use of social media and other internet-related data and communications for child maltreatment surveillance and epidemiological research: Scoping review and recommendations.Child abuse & neglect · 2018Article
- Automated Real-Time Collection of Pathogen-Specific Diagnostic Data: Syndromic Infectious Disease Epidemiology.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2018Article
- Evaluating oseltamivir prescriptions in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services medical claims records as an indicator of seasonal influenza in the United States.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2018Article
- Prevalence of exceeding maximum daily dose of paracetamol, and seasonal variations in cold-flu season.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2018Article
- The usefulness of school-based syndromic surveillance for detecting malaria epidemics: experiences from a pilot project in Ethiopia.BMC public health · 2016Article
- The Role of Clinical Virology Laboratory and the Clinical Virology Laboratorian in Ensuring Effective Surveillance for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses: Points to Consider and Pitfalls to Avoid.Current treatment options in infectious diseases · 2016Review
- Trends in the Mechanistic and Dynamic Modeling of Infectious Diseases.Current epidemiology reports · 2016Review
- Tracking Cholera through Surveillance of Oral Rehydration Solution Sales at Pharmacies: Insights from Urban Bangladesh.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2015Article
- Leading Indicators and the Evaluation of the Performance of Alerts for Influenza Epidemics.PloS one · 2015Article
- Discovering Multi-Scale Co-Occurrence Patterns of Asthma and Influenza with Oak Ridge Bio-Surveillance Toolkit.Frontiers in public health · 2015Article
- ORBiT: Oak Ridge biosurveillance toolkit for public health dynamics.BMC bioinformatics · 2015Article
- Enhancing disease surveillance with novel data streams: challenges and opportunities.EPJ data science · 2015Article
- Cumulative query method for influenza surveillance using search engine data.Journal of medical Internet research · 2014Article
- Surveillance for emerging respiratory viruses.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2014Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The potential threat of bioterrorism along with the emergence of new or existing drug resistant strains of influenza virus, added to expanded global travel, have increased vulnerability to epidemics or pandemics and their aftermath. The same factors have also precipitated urgency for having better, faster, sensitive, and reliable syndromic surveillance systems. Prescription sales data can provide surrogate information about the development of infectious diseases and therefore serve as a useful tool in syndromic surveillance. This study compared prescription sales data from a large drug retailing pharmacy chain in the United States with Google Flu trends surveillance system data as a flu activity indicator. It was found that the two were highly correlated. The correlation coefficient (Pearson 'r') for five years' aggregate data (2007-2011) was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.90-0.94). The correlation coefficients for each of the five years between 2007 and 2011 were 0.85, 0.92, 0.91, 0.88, and 0.87 respectively. Additionally, prescription sales data from the same large drug retailing pharmacy chain in the United States were also compared with US Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) data for 2007 by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The correlation coefficient (Pearson 'r') was 0.97 (95% CI, 0.95-0.98).
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