title: Estimation of the incidence of MRSA patients: evaluation of a surveillance system using health insurance claim data.
abstract: Because sentinel surveillance systems cannot obtain information about patients who visit non-sentinel medical facilities, the characteristics of patients identified by these systems may be biased. In this study, we evaluated the representativeness of a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) surveillance system using health insurance claim (HIC) data, which does not depend on physician notification. We calculated the age-specific incidence of MRSA patients using data from the Japan Nosocomial Infections Surveillance (JANIS) programme, which is based on sentinel surveillance systems, and inpatient HICs submitted to employee health insurance organizations in 2011, and then computed age-specific incidence ratios between the HIC and JANIS data. Age-specific MRSA incidence in both datasets followed J-shaped curves with similar shapes. For all age groups, the ratios between HIC and JANIS data were around 10. These findings indicate that JANIS notification of MRSA cases was not affected by patients' age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine,School of Medicine,Fukuoka University,Fukuoka,Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanihara
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology II,National Institute of Infectious Diseases,Tokyo,Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007345:Insurance Claim Review / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D055624:Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011023:Pneumonia, Staphylococcal / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Disease notification; MRSA; health insurance claims; sentinel surveillance