Use of administrative data for evaluating trends in medically-attended Lyme disease, Manitoba, Canada, 2010–2021

Abstract

While Lyme disease (LD) is the most common tick-borne disease reported to public health surveillance in North America and is increasingly recognized as a public health threat in Canada, it’s incidence may be underreported. Our study aims to estimate medically-attended LD incidence in Manitoba, Canada, using administrative health data. We identified medically-attended LD cases in Manitoba from 2010 − 2021 in a claims database (Manitoba Population Research Data Repository), which contains the health records of >95% of the residents of Manitoba, using diagnostic codes, antibiotic dispensations, and laboratory results. The incidence of claims-based LD cases ranged from 8.4 to 28.5 per 100,000 population per year, 5.1 to 11.0 times higher than the incidence of surveillance-reported LD cases. The incidence of claims-based LD cases was particularly higher than the incidence of surveillance-reported LD cases in females and health regions with a low surveillance-reported incidence. Our study suggests that medically attended LD is more common than reported in surveillance. Further study is required to identify barriers to reporting. Interventions are needed to reduce the substantial burden of LD in Manitoba.