ArticleBMC infectious diseases2017
Disease severity determines health-seeking behaviour amongst individuals with influenza-like illness in an internet-based cohort.
Article in BMC infectious diseases, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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
35 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Spotlight influenza: Laboratory-confirmed seasonal influenza in people with acute respiratory illness: a literature review and meta-analysis, WHO European Region, 2004 to 2017.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2021Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Prevalence of Community-Onset Bloodstream Infections among Hospitalized Patients in Africa and Asia.Antimicrobial agents and chemotherapy · 2019Pooled it
- Participant self-collected versus research coordinator-collected nasal swabs for respiratory viral surveillance following influenza-like illness.Frontiers in public health · 2026Trial
- Monitoring influenza-like symptoms in the UK through participatory surveillance: Insights from FluSurvey over two winter seasons (2023-24 and 2024-25).PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Assessment of influenza burden, preventive behaviours, and vaccination uptake among multi-ethnic university students in the United Arab Emirates: a cross-sectional study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Epidemiological and antigenic inferences from serological cross-reactivity among arboviruses.Science translational medicine · 2025Article
- The tale of two assumptions: incorporating healthcare-seeking behaviour in epidemic forecasting.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Community-Driven, Text Message-Based COVID-19 Surveillance System, Los Angeles County, California, USA, 2020-2024.Emerging infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Seasonal synchronization and unpredictability in epidemic models with waning immunity and healthcare thresholds.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring influenza vaccination determinants through digital participatory surveillance.BMC public health · 2025Article
- How immunity shapes the long-term dynamics of influenza H3N2.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Enhancing healthcare utilization and reducing preventable hospitalizations: exploring the healthcare-seeking propensity of patients with non-communicable diseases in Rural China.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Severity-dependent test-seeking behaviors and test-negative designs: impact on estimated vaccine effectiveness and utility of analytic and design choices.American journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Estimating and Explaining the Differences in Health Care Seeking by Symptom Burden Among Persons With Presumptive Tuberculosis: Findings From a Population-Based Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey in a High-Burden Setting in India.Open forum infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Long COVID symptoms and demographic associations: A retrospective case series study using healthcare application data.JRSM open · 2024Article
- Key Challenges for Respiratory Virus Surveillance while Transitioning out of Acute Phase of COVID-19 Pandemic.Emerging infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Determinants of the low use of Thailand's Universal Coverage Scheme: a national cross-sectional study.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Factors associated with health-seeking patterns among internally displaced persons in complex humanitarian emergency, Northeast Nigeria: a cross-sectional study.Conflict and health · 2023Article
- Respiratory Infections Are More Common Than Healthcare Records Indicate: Results From an Anonymous Survey.Military medicine · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSeasonal influenza epidemics place considerable strain on health services. Robust systems of surveillance are therefore required to ensure preparedness. Sentinel surveillance does not accurately capture the community burden of epidemics as it misses cases that do not present to health services. In this study, Flusurvey (an internet-based community surveillance tool) was used to examine how severity of disease influences health-seeking behaviour in the UK.
methodsLogistic regression with random effects was used to investigate the association between health-seeking and symptom severity, duration of illness and reduction in self-reported health-score over four flu seasons between 2011 and 2015.
resultsThe majority of individuals did not seek care. In general, there was very strong evidence for an association between all severity indicators and visiting a health service (p < 0.0001). Being female (OR 1.62, 95% CI 1.23-2.14, p = 0.0003) and a self-diagnosis of the flu (OR 3.39, 95% CI 2.38-4.83, p < 0.0001) were also associated with increased likelihood of visiting a health service. During the 2012-13 and 2014-15 flu seasons, there was a significantly larger proportion of individuals with more severe sets of symptoms and a longer duration of illness. Despite this, the proportion of individuals with particular sets of symptoms visiting a health service showed only very slight variation across years.
conclusionsTraditional surveillance systems capture only the more severe episodes of illness. However, in spite of variation in flu activity, the proportion of individuals visiting a health service remains relatively stable within specific sets of symptoms across years. These data could be used in combination with data on consultation rates to provide better estimates of community burden.
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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.