Health Surveillance :An active monitoring approach

Health surveillance is a system of ongoing health checks. It monitors the worker health and acts as a proactive measure .

These health checks may be required by law for employees who are exposed to like noise, vibration, ionising radiation, solvents, fumes, dusts, biological agents and other substances hazardous to health, or work in compressed air etc.

Health Surveillance is crucial because it contributes to better prevention and management of non-communicable diseases.

Attributes of a Surveillance System (as per CDC)

The operation and characteristics of most surveillance systems are relatively complex, but every surveillance system can be described with respect to the following nine basic attributes:

• Simplicity refers to the system’s structure and ease of operation.

• Flexibility is the ability of the system to adapt to changing information needs and operating conditions with minimal additional cost.

• Data quality is the completeness and validity of the data collected through the system.

• Acceptability is the willingness of persons and organizations to participate in the system, including those who operate the system, report cases of the disease, or use the data.

• Sensitivity is the proportion of cases of a disease detected by a surveillance system and the ability of the system to monitor changes in the number of cases over time, such as outbreaks.

• Predictive value positive is the proportion of cases reported through the system that are accurately diagnosed instances of the disease under surveillance.

• Representativeness is the extent to which the system accurately describes the occurrence of the disease over time and its distribution in the population by place and person.

• Timeliness reflects the delay between steps in a surveillance system and availability of information for control of the disease under surveillance when needed.

• Stability is the ability of a surveillance system to collect, manage, and provide data without failure and to be operational when needed.

Importance/ benefits / reasons  of Health Surveillance

Health surveillance is important for:

• detecting ill-health effects at an early stage, so employers can introduce better controls to prevent them getting worse.
• providing data to help employers evaluate health risks.
• enabling employees to raise concerns about how work affects their health
• highlighting lapses in workplace control measures, therefore providing invaluable feedback to the risk assessment. i.e. LEV is not working
• providing an opportunity to reinforce training and education of employees (eg on the impact of health effects and the use of protective equipment).
• Health surveillance can sometimes be used to help identify where more needs to be done to control risks and where early signs of work-related ill health are detected, employers should take action to prevent further harm and protect employees.