title: Assessing the impact of humidex on HFMD in Guangdong Province and its variability across social-economic status and age groups.
abstract: Humidex is a meteorological index that combines the impacts of temperature and humidity, and is directly comparable with dry temperature in degrees Celsius. However, to date, no research has focused on the effect of humidex on hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). The current study was designed to address this research need. Case-based HFMD surveillance data and daily meteorological data collected between 2010 and 2012 was obtained from the China CDC and the National Meteorological Information Center, respectively. Distributed lag nonlinear models were applied to assess the impact of humidex on HFMD among children under 15 years oldin Guangdong, and its variability across social-economic status and age groups. We found that relative risk (RR) largely increased with humidex. Lag-specific and cumulative humidex-RR curves for children from the Pearl-River Delta Region as well as older children were more likely to show two-peak distribution patterns. One RR peak occurred at a humidex of between 15 and 20, and the other occurred between 30 and 35. This study provides a comprehensive picture of the impact of humidex on HFMD incidence in Guangdong Province. Results from the present study should be important in the development of area-and-age-targeted control programs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology &Health Information Research Center &Guangdong Key Laboratory of Medicine, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Wangjian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology &Health Information Research Center &Guangdong Key Laboratory of Medicine, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Zhicheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology &Health Information Research Center &Guangdong Key Laboratory of Medicine, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Dingmei
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, China.
authors.forename: Shicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Guangzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Guangzhou 510440, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology &Health Information Research Center &Guangdong Key Laboratory of Medicine, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Yuantao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004770:Enterovirus / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006232:Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity / Q000009:adverse effects*; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D062486:Public Health Surveillance; D012307:Risk Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013696:Temperature