ArticleBMJ open2014
The spatiotemporal association of non-prescription retail sales with cases during the 2009 influenza pandemic in Great Britain.
Article in BMJ open, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- 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
- Assessing the value of integrating national longitudinal shopping data into respiratory disease forecasting models.Nature communications · 2023Article
- ATQ: alert time quality, an evaluation metric for assessing timely epidemic detection models within a school absenteeism-based surveillance system.BMC public health · 2023Article
- Development and assessment of a hospital admissions-based syndromic surveillance system for COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada: ACES Pandemic Tracker.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Cell-phone traces reveal infection-associated behavioral change.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Emerging mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic: An Indian perspective.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2020Review
- Methods for detecting seasonal influenza epidemics using a school absenteeism surveillance system.BMC public health · 2019Article
- Metagenomic analysis of viruses in toilet waste from long distance flights-A new procedure for global infectious disease surveillance.PloS one · 2019Article
- Meeting the International Health Regulations (2005) surveillance core capacity requirements at the subnational level in Europe: the added value of syndromic surveillance.BMC public health · 2015Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo assess whether retail sales of non-prescription products can be used for syndromic surveillance and whether it can detect influenza activity at different spatial scales. A secondary objective was to assess whether changes in purchasing behaviour were related to public health advice or levels of media or public interest.
settingThe UK.
participantsNational and regional influenza case estimates and retail sales from a major British supermarket. OUTCOME MEASURES: Weekly, seasonally adjusted sales of over-the-counter symptom remedies and non-pharmaceutical products; recommended as part of the advice offered by public health agencies; were compared with weekly influenza case estimates. Comparisons were made at national and regional spatial resolutions. We also compared sales to national measures of contemporaneous media output and public interest (Internet search volume) related to the pandemic.
resultsAt a national scale there was no significant correlation between retail sales of symptom remedies and cases for the whole pandemic period in 2009. At the regional scale, a minority of regions showed statistically significant positive correlations between cases and sales of adult 'cold and flu' remedies and cough remedies (3.2%, 5/156, 3.8%, 6/156), but a greater number of regions showed a significant positive correlation between cases and symptomatic remedies for children (35.6%, 55/156). Significant positive correlations between cases and sales of thermometers and antiviral hand gels/wash were seen at both spatial scales (Cor 0.477 (95% CI 0.171 to 0.699); 0.711 (95% CI 0.495 to 0.844)). We found no significant association between retail sales and media reporting or Internet search volume.
conclusionsThis study provides evidence that the British public responded appropriately to health messaging about hygiene. Non-prescription retail sales at a national level are not useful for the detection of cases. However, at finer spatial scales, in particular age-groups, retail sales may help augment existing surveillance and merit further study.
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