TY - JOUR
T1 - Geodemographics profiling of influenza A and B virus infections in community neighborhoods in Japan
AU - Kimura, Yoshinari
AU - Saito, Reiko
AU - Tsujimoto, Yoshiki
AU - Ono, Yasuhiko
AU - Nakaya, Tomoki
AU - Shobugawa, Yugo
AU - Sasaki, Asami
AU - Oguma, Taeko
AU - Suzuki, Hiroshi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the study participants and staff for their contributions, Naohito Tanabe and Satoshi Sasaki for advices about data processing and statistics of the Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, and Akira Takahara and Ryosuke Nishimura of the Isahaya City Medical Association, for outstanding study coordination efforts in the study area. This study was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (18650071) from the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Japan.
PY - 2011/2/2
Y1 - 2011/2/2
N2 - Background: The spread of influenza viruses in a community are influenced by several factors, but no reports have focused on the relationship between the incidence of influenza and characteristics of small neighborhoods in a community. We aimed to clarify the relationship between the incidence of influenza and neighborhood characteristics using GIS and identified the type of small areas where influenza occurs frequently or infrequently.Methods: Of the 19,077 registered influenza cases, we analyzed 11,437 influenza A and 5,193 influenza B cases that were diagnosed by the rapid antigen test in 66-86 medical facilities in Isahaya City, Japan, from 2004 to 2008. We used the commercial geodemographics dataset, Mosaic Japan to categorize and classify each neighborhood. Furthermore, we calculated the index value of influenza in crude and age adjusted rates to evaluate the incidence of influenza by Mosaic segmentation. Additional age structure analysis was performed to geodemographics segmentation to explore the relationship between influenza and family structure.Results: The observed number of influenza A and B patients in the neighborhoods where young couples with small children lived was approximately 10-40% higher than the expected number (p < 0.01) during all seasons. On the contrary, the number of patients in the neighborhoods of the aging society in a rural area was 20-50% lower than the expected number (p < 0.01) during all seasons. This tendency was consistent after age adjustment except in the case of influenza B, which lost significance in higher incidence areas, but the overall results indicated high transmission of influenza in areas where young families with children lived.Conclusions: Our analysis indicated that the incidence of influenza A and B in neighborhood groups is related to the family structure, especially the presence of children in households. Simple statistical analysis of geodemographics data is an effective method to understand the differences in the incidence of influenza among neighborhood groups, and it provides a valuable basis for community strategies to control influenza.
AB - Background: The spread of influenza viruses in a community are influenced by several factors, but no reports have focused on the relationship between the incidence of influenza and characteristics of small neighborhoods in a community. We aimed to clarify the relationship between the incidence of influenza and neighborhood characteristics using GIS and identified the type of small areas where influenza occurs frequently or infrequently.Methods: Of the 19,077 registered influenza cases, we analyzed 11,437 influenza A and 5,193 influenza B cases that were diagnosed by the rapid antigen test in 66-86 medical facilities in Isahaya City, Japan, from 2004 to 2008. We used the commercial geodemographics dataset, Mosaic Japan to categorize and classify each neighborhood. Furthermore, we calculated the index value of influenza in crude and age adjusted rates to evaluate the incidence of influenza by Mosaic segmentation. Additional age structure analysis was performed to geodemographics segmentation to explore the relationship between influenza and family structure.Results: The observed number of influenza A and B patients in the neighborhoods where young couples with small children lived was approximately 10-40% higher than the expected number (p < 0.01) during all seasons. On the contrary, the number of patients in the neighborhoods of the aging society in a rural area was 20-50% lower than the expected number (p < 0.01) during all seasons. This tendency was consistent after age adjustment except in the case of influenza B, which lost significance in higher incidence areas, but the overall results indicated high transmission of influenza in areas where young families with children lived.Conclusions: Our analysis indicated that the incidence of influenza A and B in neighborhood groups is related to the family structure, especially the presence of children in households. Simple statistical analysis of geodemographics data is an effective method to understand the differences in the incidence of influenza among neighborhood groups, and it provides a valuable basis for community strategies to control influenza.
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U2 - 10.1186/1471-2334-11-36
DO - 10.1186/1471-2334-11-36
M3 - Article
C2 - 21288324
AN - SCOPUS:79251624149
SN - 1471-2334
VL - 11
JO - BMC Infectious Diseases
JF - BMC Infectious Diseases
M1 - 36
ER -
