title: An exploratory analysis of individuals with multiple episodes of different reportable diseases, Montreal, 1990-2012.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Studies of public health reporting have only examined multiple episodes of the same communicable disease within an individual. We aimed to characterize Montreal residents with multiple reportable disease episodes from 1990 to 2012, while accounting for all types of reportable diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed an exploratory analysis using descriptive statistics, contingency tables, and logistic regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 157,839 individuals with at least one disease report and a total of 179,455 disease reports. The 9.8% of subjects with more than one episode accounted for 20.7% of all reported episodes. Among subjects with four or fewer episodes, 54.0% were women, while 74.3% of subjects with five or more episodes were men. Subjects with multiple episodes were more likely to be reported for sexually transmitted infections than were persons with a single episode [difference of proportions: 10.4% (95% CI: 10.0%-10.9%)] and to reside in the neighbourhood encompassing Montreal's gay village.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Individuals with multiple communicable disease reports place a large burden on public health officials. These results may help guide investigation and prevention efforts to reduce the number of excess episodes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Caron
authors.affiliation: Direction de santé publique, CIUSSS du Centre-Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada; École de santé publique, Université de Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bédard
authors.affiliation: Direction de santé publique, CIUSSS du Centre-Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Latreille
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Direction de santé publique, CIUSSS du Centre-Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada. Electronic address: david.buckeridge@mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Buckeridge
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D019221:Mandatory Reporting; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012749:Sexually Transmitted Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Communicable disease control; Infectious disease reporting; Public health surveillance