TY - JOUR AU - Sickbert-Bennett, Emily E. AU - Weber, David J. AU - Poole, Charles AU - MacDonald, Pia D.M. AU - Maillard, Jean-Marie T1 - Completeness of Communicable Disease Reporting, North Carolina, USA, 1995–1997 and 2000–2006 T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2011 VL - 17 IS - 1 SP - 23 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Despite widespread use of communicable disease surveillance data to inform public health intervention and control measures, the reporting completeness of the notifiable disease surveillance system remains incompletely assessed. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive study of reporting completeness with an analysis of 53 diseases reported by 8 health care systems across North Carolina, USA, during 1995–1997 and 2000–2006. All patients who were assigned an International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification, diagnosis code for a state-required reportable communicable disease were matched to surveillance records. We used logistic regression techniques to estimate reporting completeness by disease, year, and health care system. The completeness of reporting varied among the health care systems from 2% to 30% and improved over time. Disease-specific reporting completeness proportions ranged from 0% to 82%, but were generally low even for diseases with great public health importance and opportunity for interventions. KW - Infectious disease surveillance KW - surveillance KW - notifiable diseases KW - communicable diseases KW - bacteria KW - viruses KW - disease notification KW - epidemiology KW - research KW - North Carolina KW - USA KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid1701.100660 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/1/10-0660_article ER - End of Reference