Abstract: Objective To investigate the disease burden of acute gastroenteritis in the community population of Shenzhen. Methods A multi-stage stratified random sampling method was employed from April to September 2024 to survey the burden of acute gastroenteritis in the community. Four streets were selected from each of the seven administrative districts in Shenzhen, and from each street, four communities were chosen for the investigation. Results A total of 2 670 community members were surveyed. Within the preceding three months, 147 individuals reported 205 episodes of acute gastroenteritis, yielding a quarterly prevalence rate of 7.68% (95% CI: 6.67%-8.69%). Statistically significant differences in quarterly prevalence were observed across different occupations, per capita annual incomes, household sizes, and travel histories within the last three months (P<0.05 or P<0.01). After adjusting for population gender, the quarterly prevalence was 7.72% (95% CI: 6.71%-8.73%), leading to an extrapolated annual incidence rate of 0.31 episodes per person-year (95% CI: 0.30-0.33). Among the cases, 112 (76.19%) attributed their symptoms to food consumption and identified the suspected food items. The total estimated expenditure attributable to acute gastroenteritis in the Shenzhen community population for 2024 was 1.406 billion RMB, comprising 827 million RMB in direct costs and 579 million RMB in indirect costs. Conclusion Acute gastroenteritis imposes a substantial economic burden on both the community population and society in Shenzhen. Factors such as occupation, annual income, household size, and travel history may be associated with the occurrence of acute gastroenteritis. The suspected exposure history predominantly points towards the consumption of externally purchased food.

Key words: Acute gastroenteritis, Disease burden, Incidence rate, Community