title: Leading Indicators and the Evaluation of the Performance of Alerts for Influenza Epidemics.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most evaluations of epidemic thresholds for influenza have been limited to internal criteria of the indicator variable. We aimed to initiate discussion on appropriate methods for evaluation and the value of cross-validation in assessing the performance of a candidate indicator for influenza activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  Hospital records of in-patients with a diagnosis of confirmed influenza were extracted from the Canadian Discharge Abstract Database from 2003 to 2011 and aggregated to weekly and regional levels, yielding 7 seasons and 4 regions for evaluation (excluding the 2009 pandemic period). An alert created from the weekly time-series of influenza positive laboratory tests (FluWatch, Public Health Agency of Canada) was evaluated against influenza-confirmed hospitalizations on 5 criteria: lead/lag timing; proportion of influenza hospitalizations covered by the alert period; average length of the influenza alert period; continuity of the alert period and length of the pre-peak alert period.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Influenza hospitalizations led laboratory positive tests an average of only 1.6 (95% CI: -1.5, 4.7) days. However, the difference in timing exceeded 1 week and was statistically significant at the significance level of 0.01 in 5 out of 28 regional seasons. An alert based primarily on 5% positivity and 15 positive tests produced an average alert period of 16.6 weeks. After allowing for a reporting delay of 2 weeks, the alert period included 80% of all influenza-confirmed hospitalizations. For 20 out of the 28 (71%) seasons, the first alert would have been signalled at least 3 weeks (in real time) prior to the week with maximum number of influenza hospitalizations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Virological data collected from laboratories was a good indicator of influenza activity with the resulting alert covering most influenza hospitalizations and providing a reasonable pre-peak warning at the regional level. Though differences in timing were statistically significant, neither time-series consistently led the other.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Communicable Diseases and Infection Control, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Dena L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Schanzer
authors.affiliation: Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Myriam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saboui
authors.affiliation: Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Liza
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Francesca Reyes
authors.initials: FR
authors.lastname: Domingo
authors.affiliation: Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Infectious Diseases, Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Branch, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mersereau
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology; D008297:Male; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012621:Seasons; D013997:Time Factors