Using an innovative method to develop the threshold of seasonal influenza epidemic in China

Background: Proper early warning thresholds for defining seasonal influenza epidemics are crucial for timely engagement of intervention strategies, but are currently not well established in China. We propose a novel moving logistic regression method (MLRM) to determine epidemic thresholds and validate them with the Chinese influenza surveillance data. Methods: For each province, historical epidemic waves are formed as weekly percentages of laboratory-confirmed patients among all clinically diagnosed influenza cases. For each epidemic curve that is approximately symmetric, a series of logistic curves are fitted to increasing temporal range of the epidemic, and the threshold is determined based on the best-fitting logistic curve. Results: Using surveillance data of seasonal influenza collected during 2010–2014 in 30 provinces of China, we screened 153 epidemic waves and identified 100 as approximately symmetric; and 85 of the 100 waves were satisfactorily fitted. Compared to two published approaches, the MLRM identified lower thresholds of seasonal influenza epidemics, leading to about three weeks earlier detection of onset and about four weeks later detection of closure of the epidemics. The potential misclassification proportion of influenza epidemic waves was 6% for the MLRM, comparable to that for the two published approaches. Conclusions: The MLRM offers an alternative to existing methods for defining early warning thresholds for the surveillance of seasonal influenza, and can be readily generalized to other countries and other infectious agents. The thresholds we identified can be used for early detection of future influenza epidemics in China.