Volume 10, Number 5—May 2004
Research
Syndromic Surveillance in Public Health Practice, New York City
Richard Heffernan*, Farzad Mostashari*, Debjani Das*, Adam Karpati*, Martin Kulldorff†, and Don Weiss*
Table 2
Distribution of emergency department visits by hierarchical syndrome category (valid chief complaints)
| Syndrome (in order of hierarchy) | % all ages (n = 2,374,131*) | % age 0–12 y (n = 556,065) | % age 13–39 y, n = 946,478 | % age 40–64 y, n = 604,707 | % age >65, n = 259,615 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common cold | 2.0 | 5.8 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.5 |
| Sepsis/dead on arrival | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 1.8 |
| Respiratory | 8.0 | 13.3 | 4.4 | 6.7 | 11.9 |
| Diarrhea | 1.6 | 3.6 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
| Fever | 6.5 | 20.0 | 2.7 | 2.0 | 1.9 |
| Rash | 2.0 | 4.1 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.6 |
| Asthma | 3.3 | 4.9 | 2.6 | 3.3 | 1.9 |
| Vomiting | 2.7 | 4.7 | 2.3 | 1.7 | 2.1 |
| Other | 73.5 | 43.7 | 84.4 | 82.4 | 78.3 |
*Total number includes 7,266 visits for which patients' ages were unavailable
