The Combined Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Multiple Meteorological Factors on Unintentional Drowning Mortality: Large Case-Crossover Study

Bibliographic Details
Title: The Combined Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Multiple Meteorological Factors on Unintentional Drowning Mortality: Large Case-Crossover Study
Authors: Yingyin Liu, Xiaomei Dong, Zhixing Li, Sui Zhu, Ziqiang Lin, Guanhao He, Weiwei Gong, Jianxiong Hu, Zhulin Hou, Ruilin Meng, Chunliang Zhou, Min Yu, Biao Huang, Lifeng Lin, Jianpeng Xiao, Jieming Zhong, Donghui Jin, Yiqing Xu, Lingshuang Lv, Cunrui Huang, Tao Liu, Wenjun Ma
Source: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, Vol 9, p e46792 (2023)
Publisher Information: JMIR Publications, 2023.
Publication Year: 2023
Collection: LCC:Public aspects of medicine
Subject Terms: Public aspects of medicine, RA1-1270
More Details: BackgroundDrowning is a serious public health problem worldwide. Previous epidemiological studies on the association between meteorological factors and drowning mainly focused on individual weather factors, and the combined effect of mixed exposure to multiple meteorological factors on drowning is unclear. ObjectiveWe aimed to investigate the combined effects of multiple meteorological factors on unintentional drowning mortality in China and to identify the important meteorological factors contributing to drowning mortality. MethodsUnintentional drowning death data (based on International Classification of Diseases, 10th Edition, codes W65-74) from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2018, were collected from the Disease Surveillance Points System for Guangdong, Hunan, Zhejiang, Yunnan, and Jilin Provinces, China. Daily meteorological data, including daily mean temperature, relative humidity, sunlight duration, and rainfall in the same period were obtained from the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Science Data Center. We constructed a time-stratified case-crossover design and applied a generalized additive model to examine the effect of individual weather factors on drowning mortality, and then used quantile g-computation to estimate the joint effect of the mixed exposure to meteorological factors. ResultsA total of 46,179 drowning deaths were reported in the 5 provinces in China from 2013 to 2018. In an effect analysis of individual exposure, we observed a positive effect for sunlight duration, a negative effect for relative humidity, and U-shaped associations for temperature and rainfall with drowning mortality. In a joint effect analysis of the above 4 meteorological factors, a 2.99% (95% CI 0.26%-5.80%) increase in drowning mortality was observed per quartile rise in exposure mixture. For the total population, sunlight duration was the most important weather factor for drowning mortality, with a 93.1% positive contribution to the overall effects, while rainfall was mainly a negative factor for drowning deaths (90.5%) and temperature and relative humidity contributed 6.9% and –9.5% to the overall effects, respectively. ConclusionsThis study found that mixed exposure to temperature, relative humidity, sunlight duration, and rainfall was positively associated with drowning mortality and that sunlight duration, rather than temperature, may be the most important meteorological factor for drowning mortality. These findings imply that it is necessary to incorporate sunshine hours and temperature into early warning systems for drowning prevention in the future.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2369-2960
Relation: https://publichealth.jmir.org/2023/1/e46792; https://doaj.org/toc/2369-2960
DOI: 10.2196/46792
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/9ea0a8932f664fbaa740bfaa40155105
Accession Number: edsdoj.9ea0a8932f664fbaa740bfaa40155105
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:23692960
DOI:10.2196/46792
Published in:JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Language:English