Investigating the distribution of calls to a North American animal poison control call center by veterinarians and the public in space, time, and space-time.
Journal
PloS one
ISSN: 1932-6203
Titre abrégé: PLoS One
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 101285081
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2023
2023
Historique:
received:
12
10
2022
accepted:
04
12
2022
entrez:
22
2
2023
pubmed:
23
2
2023
medline:
25
2
2023
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Health assessments via phone call or tele-triage have become very popular. Tele-triage in the veterinary field and North American context is available since the early 2000s. However, there is little knowledge of how caller type influences the distribution of calls. The objectives of this study were to examine the distribution of calls to the Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) by caller type in space, time, and space-time. Data regarding caller location were obtained from the APCC by American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The data were analysed using the spatial scan statistic to identify clusters of higher-than-expected proportion of veterinarian or public calls in space, time, and space-time. Statistically significant spatial clusters of increased call frequencies by veterinarians were identified in some western, midwestern, and southwestern states for each year of the study period. Furthermore, annual clusters of increased call frequencies by the general public were identified from some northeastern states. Based on yearly scans, we identified statistically significant temporal clusters of higher-than-expected public calls during Christmas/winter holidays. During space-time scans of the entire study period, we identified a statistically significant cluster of higher-than-expected proportion of veterinarian calls at the beginning of the study period in the western, central, and southeastern states followed by a significant cluster of excess public calls near the end of the study period on the northeast. Our results suggest that user patterns of the APCC vary by region and both season and calendar time.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36812265
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279299
pii: PONE-D-22-26788
pmc: PMC9946250
doi:
Substances chimiques
Poisons
0
Types de publication
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e0279299Informations de copyright
Copyright: © 2023 Shahin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Références
Zoonoses Public Health. 2020 Sep;67(6):617-628
pubmed: 32558392
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2020 Sep 1;257(5):517-530
pubmed: 32808903
PLoS One. 2022 Nov 16;17(11):e0276959
pubmed: 36383510
BMC Public Health. 2015 Dec 17;15:1247
pubmed: 26673616
J Small Anim Pract. 2021 Nov;62(11):979-983
pubmed: 33788297
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2019 Jul 15;255(2):183-191
pubmed: 31260408
Zoonoses Public Health. 2017 Nov;64(7):e81-e89
pubmed: 28220657
Vector Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2016 Apr;16(4):215-22
pubmed: 26870937