Research on the influence of meteorological factors on the incidence of foodborne diseases / 公共卫生与预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the correlation between the incidence of foodborne diseases and meteorological factors in Jinan, and to provide targeted measures for the prevention and control of foodborne diseases. Methods Data from the reporting systems of two sentinel hospitals for active surveillance of foodborne diseases from 2013 to 2021 in Jinan were collected. The meteorological data in the same period in Jinan were also collected. The generalized additive model was used to explore the nonlinear relationship between meteorological factors and the incidence of foodborne diseases, and threshold function analysis was use to perform subsection regression. Results The incidence of foodborne diseases was positively correlated with daily average temperature (rs=0.23), relative humidity (rs=0.05), and daily average wind speed (rs=0.01), and negatively correlated with daily average air pressure (rs=-0.19). Based on the GAM results and segmented regression analysis of meteorological factors, it was found that when the daily average temperature was below or above the threshold of 24.63°C, for every 1°C increase in daily average temperature, the incidence of foodborne diseases correspondingly increased by 0.04% and 0.18%. When the daily average wind speed was above the threshold of 2.26 m/s, the incidence of foodborne diseases decreased by 0.36% for every 1 m/s increase in the daily average wind speed. Conclusion Nine years of observation and data analysis have shown that meteorological factors such as daily average temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, and wind speed are related to the incidence of foodborne diseases. These findings suggest that meteorological factors may be important factors leading to foodborne diseases, which provides an important scientific basis for formulating effective prevention and control measures.