Smith, CM;
Shallcross, LJ;
Dutey-Magni, P;
Conolly, A;
Fuller, C;
Hill, S;
Jhass, A;
... PASS research group; + view all
Smith, CM;
Shallcross, LJ;
Dutey-Magni, P;
Conolly, A;
Fuller, C;
Hill, S;
Jhass, A;
Marcheselli, F;
Michie, S;
Mindell, JS;
Ridd, MJ;
Tsakos, G;
Hayward, AC;
Fragaszy, EB;
PASS research group;
- view fewer
(2021)
Incidence, healthcare-seeking behaviours, antibiotic use and natural history of common infection syndromes in England: results from the Bug Watch community cohort study.
BMC Infectious Diseases
, 21
, Article 105. 10.1186/s12879-021-05811-7.
Abstract
Background: Better information on the typical course and management of acute common infections in the
community could inform antibiotic stewardship campaigns. We aimed to investigate the incidence, management,
and natural history of a range of infection syndromes (respiratory, gastrointestinal, mouth/dental, skin/soft tissue,
urinary tract, and eye).
Methods: Bug Watch was an online prospective community cohort study of the general population in England
(2018–2019) with weekly symptom reporting for 6 months. We combined symptom reports into infection
syndromes, calculated incidence rates, described the proportion leading to healthcare-seeking behaviours and
antibiotic use, and estimated duration and severity.
Results: The cohort comprised 873 individuals with 23,111 person-weeks follow-up. The mean age was 54 years
and 528 (60%) were female. We identified 1422 infection syndromes, comprising 40,590 symptom reports. The
incidence of respiratory tract infection syndromes was two per person year; for all other categories it was less than
one. 194/1422 (14%) syndromes led to GP (or dentist) consultation and 136/1422 (10%) to antibiotic use. Symptoms
usually resolved within a week and the third day was the most severe.
Conclusions: Most people reported managing their symptoms without medical consultation. Interventions
encouraging safe self-management across a range of acute infection syndromes could decrease pressure on
primary healthcare services and support targets for reducing antibiotic prescribing.
| Type: |
Article
|
| Title: |
Incidence, healthcare-seeking behaviours, antibiotic use and natural history of common infection syndromes in England: results from the Bug Watch community cohort study |
| Location: |
England |
| Open access status: |
An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: |
10.1186/s12879-021-05811-7 |
| Publisher version: |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05811-7 |
| Language: |
English |
| Additional information: |
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: |
Antibiotic stewardship, common infections, Incidence, healthcare-seeking behaviour, community cohort
studies |
| UCL classification: |
UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > UCL School of Pharmacy > Practice and Policy
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Inst of Clinical Trials and Methodology > Comprehensive CTU at UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Primary Care and Population Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics > Clinical Epidemiology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Inst for Risk and Disaster Reduction |
| URI: |
https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10119862 |
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