Differences between males and females in infectious diseases notifications in the EU/EEA, 2012 to 2021
Eurosurveillance·
- DOI
- 10.2807/1560-7917.es.2024.29.33.2300655
- PMID
- 39149823
- PMCID
- PMC11328500
- OpenAlex
- W4401642801
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The paper is relevant to surveillance review because it summarizes sex-pattern differences in reported infectious diseases across the EU/EEA. It also notes that behavior may contribute for some infections and that screening practices may help explain country differences, but these are presented as interpretations rather than confirmed effects.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The article asks whether male and female notification patterns differ across selected infectious diseases in EU/EEA surveillance data from 2012 to 2021, and whether any countries differ from the EU/EEA average.
Study design
This is an observational analysis of routine notifiable disease surveillance data. The authors summarize male proportions by disease, year, country, and age group, then use boxplots to flag countries with values outside the EU/EEA pattern.
Population and setting
EU/EEA country-level notification data for 2012 to 2021 were analyzed for 16 infectious diseases selected using the study's disability-adjusted life year cutoff. The setting is multinational European surveillance, not a patient cohort.
Main findings
Several diseases had male proportions above 50% in every country reported, including campylobacteriosis, acute hepatitis B, Legionnaires’ disease, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. For pertussis, STEC infection, and Chlamydia trachomatis infection, most countries had male proportions below 50%. The widest spread across age groups was reported for Chlamydia trachomatis infection and listeriosis, and many outliers came from countries with few cases.
Public-health relevance
The paper is relevant to surveillance review because it summarizes sex-pattern differences in reported infectious diseases across the EU/EEA. It also notes that behavior may contribute for some infections and that screening practices may help explain country differences, but these are presented as interpretations rather than confirmed effects.
Important limitations
The summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata, so it may omit details from the full paper that are needed for decision-grade interpretation. The abstract also notes that many outliers were countries with few cases, which suggests instability in some country-level comparisons.
GIDS interpretation
This article is discoverable as a Eurosurveillance analysis of EU/EEA infectious disease notifications with a sex-disaggregation focus. It provides contextual surveillance information for editorial review, but the abstract alone does not establish a live signal or confirm a current change in disease activity.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 10 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.