Pilot Evaluation of Syndrome-specific School Absenteeism Data for Public Health Surveillance

School absenteeism data could be used as an early indicator for disease outbreaks. The increase in absences, however, may be driven by non-sickness related factors. Reason for absence combined with syndrome-specific information might make absenteeism data more useful for early outbreak detection.

Objective

This is a pilot evaluation to determine the usefulness of syndrome-specific school absenteeism data for public health surveillance systems.