Characteristics and patient pathways of Lyme disease patients: a retrospective analysis of hospital episode data in England and Wales (1998-2015)

• Published in: BMC public health 2019-08, Vol.19 (1), p.931-931, Article 931
• Main Authors: Tulloch, John S P, Decraene, Valerie, Christley, Rob M, Radford, Alan D, Warner, Jenny C, Vivancos, Roberto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Care and treatment; Care pathway; Child; Child, Preschool; Databases, Factual; Demographic aspects; England - epidemiology; Female; Health education; Hospital admission and discharge; Hospital care; Hospital episodes; Hospital patients; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Incidence; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Lyme disease; Lyme Disease - epidemiology; Lyme Disease - therapy; Male; Middle Aged; Public health; Retrospective Studies; Secondary care; Socialized medicine; Statistics; Target marketing; Tick-borne diseases; Wales - epidemiology; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1471-2458; 1471-2458
• DOI: 10.1186/s12889-019-7245-8

Lyme disease is a tick-borne disease of increasing global importance. There is scant information on Lyme disease patient demographics in England and Wales, and how they interact with the National Health Service (NHS). Our aims were to explore the demographic characteristics of Lyme disease patients within the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) and Patient Episode Database for Wales (PEDW), and to describe patient pathways. Data from 1st January 1998 to 31st December 2015 was retrieved from the two administrative hospital datasets (HES and PEDW), based on patients coded with Lyme disease. Information was collected on demographic characteristics, home address and case management. Incidence rates were calculated, and demographics compared to the national population. Within HES and PEDW, 2361 patients were coded with Lyme disease. There was a significant increase (p