背景:公共卫生监测在告知公共卫生决策中起着至关重要的作用。2020年初COVID-19大流行的爆发导致公共卫生重点的广泛转变。全球努力侧重于COVID-19监测和接触者追踪。由于物理距离措施和资源重新分配,现有的公共卫生计划被中断。COVID-19大流行的爆发与有可能支持公共卫生监测工作的技术进步交织在一起。
目的:本范围审查旨在探索COVID-19大流行早期的紧急公共卫生监测方法,以描述大流行对监测方法的影响。
方法:从2020年3月至2022年1月,在多个数据库中进行了范围搜索,并扫描了主要的政府和公共卫生组织网站。包括已发表的论文和灰色文献,这些文献描述了新的或修订的方法在公共卫生监测中的应用。论文讨论了新的公共卫生监测方法从伦理,legal,安全,公平观点也包括在内。监视对象,方法,location,从每篇论文中提取和设置,以确定监测实践的趋势。邀请了两名公共卫生流行病学家作为同行评审员提供他们的观点。
结果:在14,238篇独特的论文中,共有241篇论文描述了新的监测方法和监测方法的变化。80篇论文为综述论文,161篇为单项研究。总的来说,文献中大量详述了COVID-19传播监测的论文(n=187)。还描述了对其他传染病的监测,包括其他病原体(n=12)。其他公共卫生主题包括疫苗(n=9),心理健康(n=11),物质使用(n=4),健康营养(n=1),母婴健康(n=3),抗菌素耐药性(n=2),和错误信息(n=6)。文献主要是数字监控的应用,例如,通过移动跟踪和信息流行病学使用大数据(n=163)。废水监测也大量出现(n=48)。其他论文描述了对COVID-19大流行之前存在的程序或方法的适应(n=9)。范围搜索还发现了109篇讨论伦理的论文,legal,安全,以及新兴监测方法的公平影响。同行评审的公共卫生流行病学家指出,可能存在其他变化,超出了已经报道和可用于证据合成的范围。
结论:COVID-19大流行加速了监测和新技术的采用,特别是数字和废水监测方法。考虑到这些系统的投资,公共卫生监测的进一步应用是可能的。监测方法的文献以传染病监测为主,特别是COVID-19。大量关于伦理的文献,legal,安全,这些新出现的监测方法的公平性影响也表明,需要谨慎考虑潜在的危害。
BACKGROUND: Public health surveillance plays a vital role in informing public health decision-making. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 caused a widespread shift in public health priorities. Global efforts focused on COVID-19 monitoring and contact tracing. Existing public health programs were interrupted due to physical distancing measures and reallocation of resources. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic intersected with advancements in technologies that have the potential to support public health surveillance efforts.
OBJECTIVE: This scoping
review aims to explore emergent public health surveillance methods during the early COVID-19 pandemic to characterize the impact of the pandemic on surveillance methods.
METHODS: A scoping search was conducted in multiple databases and by scanning key government and public health organization websites from March 2020 to January 2022. Published papers and gray literature that described the application of new or revised approaches to public health surveillance were included. Papers that discussed the implications of novel public health surveillance approaches from ethical, legal, security, and equity perspectives were also included. The surveillance subject, method, location, and setting were extracted from each paper to identify trends in surveillance practices. Two public health epidemiologists were invited to provide their perspectives as peer reviewers.
RESULTS: Of the 14,238 unique papers, a total of 241 papers describing novel surveillance methods and changes to surveillance methods are included. Eighty papers were
review papers and 161 were single studies. Overall, the literature heavily featured papers detailing surveillance of COVID-19 transmission (n=187). Surveillance of other infectious diseases was also described, including other pathogens (n=12). Other public health topics included vaccines (n=9), mental health (n=11), substance use (n=4), healthy nutrition (n=1), maternal and child health (n=3), antimicrobial resistance (n=2), and misinformation (n=6). The literature was dominated by applications of digital surveillance, for example, by using big data through mobility tracking and infodemiology (n=163). Wastewater surveillance was also heavily represented (n=48). Other papers described adaptations to programs or methods that existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (n=9). The scoping search also found 109 papers that discuss the ethical, legal, security, and equity implications of emerging surveillance methods. The peer reviewer public health epidemiologists noted that additional changes likely exist, beyond what has been reported and available for evidence syntheses.
CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated advancements in surveillance and the adoption of new technologies, especially for digital and wastewater surveillance methods. Given the investments in these systems, further applications for public health surveillance are likely. The literature for surveillance methods was dominated by surveillance of infectious diseases, particularly COVID-19. A substantial amount of literature on the ethical, legal, security, and equity implications of these emerging surveillance methods also points to a need for cautious consideration of potential harm.