Limitations
It must be acknowledged that only published studies detailing laboratory confirmed cases are included in the reviewed data. It is suggested that actual incidence is likely to be higher due to under reporting.
This report only includes annual reports for Scotland and the UK, annual reports from other countries were not included. We acknowledge that including national-level reports alongside peer-reviewed publications, is valuable and should be considered for future iterations of such analyses. Nevertheless, this report successfully identifies the clinically vulnerable groups in Scotland and provides a comparison with other countries.
Although including the annual reports from other countries may allow for more precise comparison between pathogens and years during which the infections took place, they would not add any addition detail regarding the clinically vulnerable groups. Prevalence data associated with specific behaviours, socio-economic and lifestyle factors were beyond the scope of this study and are considered as part of the SEFARI Fellowship with Food Standards Scotland (SEFARI, 2023).