TY - JOUR PY - 2016// TI - Evaluation of real-time mortality surveillance based on media reports JO - Disaster medicine and public health preparedness A1 - Olaniyi, Olaniyi O. A1 - Bayleyegn, Tesfaye M. A1 - Noe, Rebecca S. A1 - Lewis, Lauren S. A1 - Arrisi, Vincent A1 - Wolkin, Amy F. SP - 460 EP - 466 VL - 11 IS - 4 N2 - OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the usefulness and accuracy of media-reported data for active disaster-related mortality surveillance.

METHODS: From October 29 through November 5, 2012, epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracked online media reports for Hurricane Sandy-related deaths by use of a keyword search. To evaluate the media-reported data, vital statistics records of Sandy-related deaths were compared to corresponding media-reported deaths and assessed for percentage match. Sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), and timeliness of the media reports for detecting Sandy-related deaths were calculated.

RESULTS: Ninety-nine media-reported deaths were identified and compared with the 90 vital statistics death records sent to the CDC by New York City (NYC) and the 5 states that agreed to participate in this study. Seventy-five (76%) of the media reports matched with vital statistics records. Only NYC was able to actively track Sandy-related deaths during the event. Moderate sensitivity (83%) and PPV (83%) were calculated for the matching media-reported deaths for NYC.

CONCLUSIONS: During Hurricane Sandy, the media-reported information was moderately sensitive, and percentage match with vital statistics records was also moderate. The results indicate that online media-reported deaths can be useful as a supplemental source of information for situational awareness and immediate public health decision-making during the initial response stage of a disaster. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2016;page 1 of 7).

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1935-7893 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2016.170 ID - ref1 ER -