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Table 2 Themes and contributing factors identified
| Themes and contributing factors identified during interviews and focus groups | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Key theme | Contributing factor |
| Knowledge and process | Public health experience | ▪ How public health experience influences enteric illness investigations (e.g. methodology, education) |
| Access to healthcare | ▪ Influential factors that affect the availability of healthcare (e.g. remote location, language barrier, under-reporting) | |
| Risk factors | Travel | ▪ International travel and domestic travel |
| Food handling | ▪ Food handler | |
| ▪ Cross contamination | ||
| ▪ Temperature control, undercooked food and time in storage | ||
| ▪ Food choices: fresh produce, raw milk, deli meats, soft cheeses, sea food | ||
| Industry | ▪ The farm-to-fork continuum: all production stages of food (i.e. slaughter, processing, packaging, retail) | |
| Water | ▪ Recreational activities: swimming, camping, canoeing, hiking | |
| ▪ Drinking contaminated surface water or well water | ||
| Geography | ▪ Climate and seasonality | |
| ▪ Spatial factors: urban versus rural, postal code | ||
| Susceptibility factors | Demographics | ▪ Biological factors: age, gender, immune-compromised, co-morbidity |
| ▪ Work and home environment factors: occupation, socio-economic status, living conditions, education, university residence, daycare, long-term care facility | ||
| Behaviours | ▪ Mass gatherings | |
| ▪ Person-to-person (e.g. MSM) | ||
| ▪ Culture: defined as shared experiences, values, and traditions | ||
| ▪ Ethnicity: defined as country of origin | ||
| ▪ Rituals/traditions: food handling practices passed down from generations | ||
| ▪ Animal contact: petting zoos/farms, domestic pets, wildlife reserves | ||
| ▪ Food preferences: cultural foods, traditional foods (e.g. aboriginal hunting), smoked foods | ||
| ▪ Personal hygiene practices (e.g. hand-washing) | ||
