[Evaluation of the information provided by the system of compulsory notification of diseases]

In order to assess activities of epidemiological surveillance resulting from the statutory notification system, a total of 17,394 notification records of eight infectious diseases (brucellosis, bacillary dysentery, typhoid fever, viral hepatitis, meningococcal infection, rickettsioses other than exanthematous typhus, pulmonary tuberculosis, and tuberculosis of other organs) together with 10,503 epidemiological surveys submitted to the "Servei Territorial de Salut Pública" of the province of Barcelona between 1982 and 1986 were reviewed. In notification records, data to locate physicians were the most commonly found (between 92.6% and 99.4% according to disease), whereas in epidemiological surveys, clinical and analytical data were the most frequently encountered. The inclusion of data of epidemiological interest ranged from 3.6 to 68.6%. In order to improve efficacy of the statutory notification system a proposal is made to reduce the extension of epidemiological surveys in terms of requesting only necessary data to establish appropriate measures in each case.