In order to design effective public health strategies, and, in particular, effective food safety interventions to reduce the burden of foodborne disease, the most important sources of enteric illnesses should be identified. Both case-control and cohort observational studies have for long been powerful approaches among epidemiologists to investigate the association of exposure and illness. In the literature, there are numerous case-control and cohort studies reporting results on risk factors and routes of transmission of sporadic foodborne infections. The objective of this article is to describe, in depth, the strategies implemented for systematic review and meta-analysis of the associations between multiple risk factors and eleven food and waterborne diseases, namely, non-typhoidal salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, Shiga-toxin E. coli infection, listeriosis, yersiniosis, toxoplasmosis, norovirus infection, hepatitis A, hepatitis E, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis. First, this article describes the procedures of systematic searches in five bibliographic engines, screening of relevance and assessment of methodological quality according to pre-set criteria. It proceeds with the explanation of a broad data categorisation scheme established to hierarchically group the risk factors into travel, host-specific factors and pathways of exposure (i.e., person-to-person, animal, environment and food routes), with views to harmonising and supporting the integration of outcomes from studies investigating a variety of potential determinants of disease. Next, the article describes the four meta-analysis models that were devised in order to calculate: (i) overall odds-ratios of acquiring the disease due to a specific risk factor by geographical region; (ii) overall odds-ratios of acquiring the disease from the different risk factors; (iii) overall risks of disease from consumption of ready-to-eat and barbecued foods; and (iv) overall effects of food handling (i.e., consuming food in raw, undercooked or unwashed state) and food preparation setting (i.e., eating food prepared outside the home) on risk of disease. The procedures for sensitivity analysis and removal of any influential and potentially-biased odds-ratio; and two methods for publication bias assessment are outlined. Finally, details are given on deviations from the standard risk categorisation scheme for specific foodborne hazards.

为了设计有效的公共卫生策略，尤其是有效的食品安全干预措施，以减轻食源性疾病的负担，应确定最重要的肠道疾病来源。长期以来，病例对照研究和队列观察研究都是流行病学家调查暴露与疾病之间关系的有效方法。在文献中，有大量的病例对照研究和队列研究报告了散发性食源性感染的危险因素和传播途径的结果。本文的目的是深入描述针对多种风险因素与十一种食物和水传播疾病（即非伤寒沙门氏菌病，弯曲杆菌病，志贺毒素）之间的关联进行系统回顾和荟萃分析的策略大肠杆菌感染，李斯特菌病，耶尔森病，弓形虫病，诺如病毒感染，甲型肝炎，戊型肝炎，隐孢子虫病和贾第鞭毛虫病。首先，本文介绍了在五个书目引擎中进行系统搜索，根据相关标准进行相关性筛选和方法学质量评估的程序。它继续解释了一个广泛的数据分类方案，该方案旨在将危险因素分为旅行，宿主特定因素和接触途径（即人与人，动物，环境和食物路线）进行分层，以实现协调一致。并支持对各种潜在疾病决定因素进行研究的研究结果的整合。接下来，本文介绍了为了计算而设计的四个荟萃分析模型：（i）由于地理区域的特定风险因素而患上该疾病的总体可能性比；（ii）从不同的危险因素中获得该疾病的总体可能性比；（iii）食用即食和烧烤食品带来的总体疾病风险；（iv）食物处理（例如，食用生，未煮熟或未洗净状态的食物）和食物准备环境（即，食用在家外准备的食物）对疾病风险的总体影响。敏感性分析和消除任何有影响和可能有偏的比值比的程序；概述了两种出版偏向评估方法。最后，详细介绍了针对特定食源性危害的偏离标准风险分类方案的情况。（ii）从不同的危险因素中获得该疾病的总体可能性比；（iii）食用即食和烧烤食品带来的总体疾病风险；（iv）食物处理（例如，食用生，未煮熟或未洗净状态的食物）和食物准备环境（即，食用在家外准备的食物）对疾病风险的总体影响。敏感性分析和消除任何有影响和可能有偏的比值比的程序；概述了两种出版偏向评估方法。最后，详细介绍了针对特定食源性危害的偏离标准风险分类方案的情况。（ii）从不同的危险因素中获得该疾病的总体可能性比；（iii）食用即食和烧烤食品带来的总体疾病风险；（iv）食物处理（例如，食用生，未煮熟或未洗净状态的食物）和食物准备环境（即，食用在家外准备的食物）对疾病风险的总体影响。敏感性分析和消除任何有影响和可能有偏的比值比的程序；概述了两种出版偏向评估方法。最后，详细介绍了针对特定食源性危害的偏离标准风险分类方案的情况。未煮熟或未洗净的状态）和准备食物的环境（即，吃在家外准备的食物）以防患病。敏感性分析和消除任何有影响和可能有偏的比值比的程序；概述了两种出版偏向评估方法。最后，详细介绍了针对特定食源性危害的偏离标准风险分类方案的情况。未煮熟或未洗净的状态）和准备食物的环境（即，吃在家外准备的食物）以防患病。敏感性分析和消除任何有影响和可能有偏的比值比的程序；概述了两种出版偏向评估方法。最后，详细说明了针对特定食源性危害的偏离标准风险分类方案的情况。