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RISK FACTORS FOR ENDEMIC GASTROINTESTINAL ILLNESS AMONG A WASHINGTON COHORT
Citation:
Peterson, C AND R L. Calderon. RISK FACTORS FOR ENDEMIC GASTROINTESTINAL ILLNESS AMONG A WASHINGTON COHORT. Presented at Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, June 12-14, 2003.
Description:
RISK FACTORS FOR ENDEMIC GASTROINTESTINAL ILLNESS AMONG A WASHINGTON COHORT
*Christina A. Peterson 1,2,3 and Rebecca L. Calderon 2
1 Department of Epidemiology
School of Public Health (SPH)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), 27516
2 National Health and Environmental Effects Laboratory
US Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
3 Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, SPH, UNC-CH, 27516
Risk factors for infectious gastrointestinal (GI) disease have been identified through outbreak investigations. The objective of our analysis was to investigate the role of known risk factors for endemic GI illness to identify possible prevention strategies. Outbreaks are by definition times of unusual disease occurrence, so lessons learned from outbreaks may be applicable to endemic disease prevention. We compared participants' exposure to various GI illness risk factors at the time they were ill to their exposure experience when they were well during a longitudinal study of GI illness and calculated odds ratios for each of the risk factors under study. Contact with someone with a GI illness within the previous seven days was the strongest predictor of illness within our study population. There were different distributions of exposures among participants when stratified by age and sex. Among children, drinking untreated water carried the highest association with illness. Children should be taught to avoid consuming water while swimming or drinking from untreated sources. Personal hygiene education could also reduce some of the burden of endemic GI illness. This work was supported in part by the NHEERL-DESE Cooperative Training in Environmental Sciences Research Agreement, EPA (CT 826513). (This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.)