ArticleEnvironmental health perspectives2016
Reducing Emergency Department Visits for Acute Gastrointestinal Illnesses in North Carolina (USA) by Extending Community Water Service.
Article in Environmental health perspectives, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
19 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Burden of disease from contaminated drinking water in countries with high access to safely managed water: A systematic review.Water research · 2023Pooled it
- Acute Diarrheal Disease Associated With Climate Variability and Water Supply System Configuration: An Ecological Study in Brazil.Water environment research : a research publication of the Water Environment Federation · 2026Article
- The Human Exposome: Integrating the Environment, Human Health, and Society for the Next 60 years.Environmental science & technology · 2026Review
- Hurricanes, industrial animal operations, and acute gastrointestinal illness in North Carolina, USA.Environmental research, health : ERH · 2025Article
- Exploring Demographic Disparities in Private Well Water Testing in North Carolina.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Association of Environmental Injustice and Cardiovascular Diseases and Risk Factors in the United States.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Using Inundation Extents to Predict Microbial Contamination in Private Wells after Flooding Events.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- Drinking Water Disparities in North Carolina Communities Served by Private Wells.Environmental justice (Print) · 2023Article
- Exposure to industrial hog operations and gastrointestinal illness in North Carolina, USA.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Hurricane flooding and acute gastrointestinal illness in North Carolina.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- Sources and Risk Factors for Nitrate and Microbial Contamination of Private Household Wells in the Fractured Dolomite Aquifer of Northeastern Wisconsin.Environmental health perspectives · 2021Article
- Private Wells and Rural Health: Groundwater Contaminants of Emerging Concern.Current environmental health reports · 2020Review
- Prevalence of Microbiological and Chemical Contaminants in Private Drinking Water Wells in Maryland, USA.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Article
- Unwell: The Public Health Implications of Unregulated Drinking Water.Environmental health perspectives · 2017Article
- Strategies to Improve Private-Well Water Quality: A North Carolina Perspective.Environmental health perspectives · 2017Review
- Exposure to Contaminated Drinking Water and Health Disparities in North Carolina.American journal of public health · 2017Article
- An Innovative Approach to Predict Drinking Water Risks Using System, Community, and Regulatory Characteristics.Inquiry : a journal of medical care organization, provision and financingArticle
- Private Well Water Safety: Practical Counseling Strategies for Primary Care.Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFMReview
- Quantitative microbial risk assessment with microbial source tracking for enteric pathogens in southwest Wisconsin private wells.Journal of environmental qualityArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPrevious analyses have suggested that unregulated private drinking water wells carry a higher risk of exposure to microbial contamination than regulated community water systems. In North Carolina, ~35% of the state's population relies on private wells, but the health impact associated with widespread reliance on such unregulated drinking water sources is unknown.
objectivesWe estimated the total number of emergency department visits for acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) attributable to microbial contamination in private wells in North Carolina per year, the costs of those visits, and the potential health benefits of extending regulated water service to households currently relying on private wells for their drinking water.
methodsWe developed a population intervention model using 2007-2013 data from all 122 North Carolina emergency departments along with microbial contamination data for all 2,120 community water systems and for 16,138 private well water samples collected since 2008.
resultsAn estimated 29,400 (95% CI: 26,600, 32,200) emergency department visits per year for acute gastrointestinal illness were attributable to microbial contamination in drinking water, constituting approximately 7.3% (95% CI: 6.6, 7.9%) of all AGI-related visits. Of these attributable cases, 99% (29,200; 95% CI: 26,500, 31,900) were associated with private well contamination. The estimated statewide annual cost of emergency department visits attributable to microbiological contamination of drinking water is 40.2 million USD (95% CI: 2.58 million USD, 193 million USD), of which 39.9 million USD (95% CI: 2.56 million USD, 192 million USD) is estimated to arise from private well contamination. An estimated 2,920 (95% CI: 2,650, 3,190) annual emergency department visits could be prevented by extending community water service to 10% of the population currently relying on private wells.
conclusionsThis research provides new evidence that extending regulated community water service to populations currently relying on private wells may decrease the population burden of acute gastrointestinal illness. CITATION: DeFelice NB, Johnston JE, Gibson JM. 2016. Reducing emergency department visits for acute gastrointestinal illnesses in North Carolina (USA) by extending community water service. Environ Health Perspect 124:1583-1591; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/EHP160.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.