Summary
This study was commissioned to be undertaken by the University of Aberdeen to understand why there are differences in disease incidence between more and less deprived populations, and to obtain an up to date picture of campylobacter infection in Scotland.
Campylobacter is the main cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in the UK. In Scotland during 2019 there were 5975 reported cases of human campylobacter infection. Previous work has established an apparent lower incidence of reported campylobacter infections in more deprived populations but this is not observed in hospitalised cases. This study aimed to understand if this was actually a true reflection of the disease incidence, an artefact of reporting or an indicator of different health care use by these communities.