Identification of Health Risks of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease in China Using the Geographical Detector Technique

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Jixia Huang²  Jinfeng Wang²  Yanchen Bo¹  Chengdong Xu²  Maogui Hu² 

[1] School of Geography, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; E-Mail:;State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Science and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; E-Mails:

关键词: hand;    foot and mouth disease;    geographical detector;    interactive effect;    industrial structure;    population density;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph110303407

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease, causing thousands of deaths among children in China over the past two decades. Environmental risk factors such as meteorological factors, population factors and economic factors may affect the incidence of HFMD. In the current paper, we used a novel model—geographical detector technique to analyze the effect of these factors on the incidence of HFMD in China. We collected HFMD cases from 2,309 counties during May 2008 in China. The monthly cumulative incidence of HFMD was calculated for children aged 0–9 years. Potential risk factors included meteorological factors, economic factors, and population density factors. Four geographical detectors (risk detector, factor detector, ecological detector, and interaction detector) were used to analyze the effects of some potential risk factors on the incidence of HFMD in China. We found that tertiary industry and children exert more influence than first industry and middle school students on the incidence of HFMD. The interactive effect of any two risk factors increases the hazard for HFMD transmission.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.