Weather effects on hand, foot, and mouth disease at individual level: a case-crossover study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) raises an urgent public health issue in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in China. The associations between weather factors and HFMD have been widely studied but with inconsistent results. Moreover, previous studies utilizing ecological design could not rule out the bias of exposure misclassification and unobserved confounders.

Methods

We used case-crossover analysis to assess the associations of weather factors on HFMD. Individual HFMD cases from 2009 to 2012 in Guangdong were collected and cases located within 10 km of the meteorological monitoring sites were included. Lag effects were examined through the previous 7 days. In addition, we explored the variability by changing the distance within 20 km and 30 km.

Results<

SUBMITTER: Du Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6891988 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature