Year: 2013
Funding: Jr Investigator Award
Status: Completed
Overview
Incidence and outcomes of foodborne disease outbreaks (FBDO) are routinely collected at the federal level; however the system by which this data is collected from individual states is disjointed. The result is sporadic and inconsistent reporting and thus an overly conservative estimate of the humanistic and financial impact of FBDO at the state and national levels. There has not been an intrastate analysis which investigates the relationship between the contents of the state-level lists to reporting. The consistency between state versus federal notifiable diseases lists and resulting data collected also has not been investigated. The objective of this study is to better characterize the structure and organization of FBDO reporting systems for surveillance at the state level in an effort to identify areas to improve the quality of data collected. The lists of mandatory notifiable diseases will be collected from 50 state health department websites. The dates of last revision will be noted. These lists will then be compared to the most recent version of the CDC list of notifiable diseases to look for consistency and identify gaps in surveillance. Finally, incidence of FBDO as collected by the CDC Foodborne Outbreak Online Database will be analyzed to look for associations in reporting as they relate to the consistency of notifiable disease lists at the state level. Findings from this project will add to the evidence base of public health systems and services research by contributing to the characterization of the system for reporting FBDO and identifying areas for restructuring to improve surveillance and outcomes.
Presentation
- State Health Department Foodborne Disease Outbreak Reporting (PHSSR Research in Progress Webinar, September 2014 recording)
Researcher
Mentor
Jennifer Ibrahim, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Temple University
Public Health Law Research Center
Presentations
- A Summary of Health Outcomes: Multistate Foodborne Disease Outbreaks in the United States, 1998 – 2007. (AcademyHealth ARM-June 2011)
- Patient and care profiles of under-insured hepatitis C patients in an inner city clinic setting. (APHA 2012)
- Preliminary Analysis of Foodborne Outbreaks in the United States, 1998 – 2007: How Does the Pattern of the Outbreak Affect Health Outcomes? (National Environmental Health Association's 74th Annual Education Conference and Exhibition-2010)
- Review of State Plans for Food Safety: Is Our Food Supply Really Safe? (poster) (APHA 2009)