Community-level risk factors for notifiable gastrointestinal illness in the Northwest Territories, Canada, 1991-2008.

Background: Enteric pathogens are an important cause of illness, however, little is known about their community-level risk factors (e.g., socioeconomic, cultural and physical environmental conditions) in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada.

A descriptive analysis of notifiable gastrointestinal illness in the Northwest Territories, Canada, 1991-2008.

Objectives: To describe the major characteristics of reported notifiable gastrointestinal illness (NGI) data in the Northwest Territories (NWT) from January 1991 through December 2008.

Design: Descriptive analysis of 708 reported cases of NGI extracted from the Northwest Territories Communicable Disease Registry (NWT CDR).

Setting: Primary, secondary and tertiary health care centres across all 33 communities of the NWT.

A spatial and temporal analysis of notifiable gastrointestinal illness in the Northwest Territories, Canada, 1991-2008.

Background: This is the first study to describe the geographical and temporal distribution of notifiable gastrointestinal illness (NGI) in the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada. Understanding the distribution of NGI in space and time is important for identifying communities at high risk. Using data derived from the Northwest Territories Communicable Disease Registry (NWT CDR), a number of spatial and temporal techniques were used to explore and analyze NGI incidence from the years 1991 to 2008.