BACKGROUND: Children's respiratory health demonstrates particular sensitivity to air pollution. Existing evidence investigating the association between short-term ozone (O₃) exposure and childhood pneumonia remains insufficient and inconsistent, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). METHOD: To provide more reliable and persuasive evidence, we implemented a multi-city, time-stratified case-crossover design with a large sample size, using data from seven representative children's hospitals across major geographical regions in China. To avoid the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, individual-level medical records of inpatient children under 6 years of age diagnosed with pneumonia during 2016-2019 were collected. Conditional logistic regression models were fitted for each city, and city-specific estimates were pooled through a meta-analysis using a random-effects model. RESULTS: In total, the study included 137,470 pediatric pneumonia hospital admissions. The highest pooled estimate for O₃ occurred at lag0-1, with a 10 µg/m³ increase in O₃ associated with a 1.57% (95% CI: 0.67%-2.48%) higher risk of pediatric pneumonia hospital admissions. Stratified analyses indicated that the effects of O₃ were robust across different sexes, age groups, and admission seasons. We also observed a statistically significant increase in risk associated with O₃ concentrations exceeding the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines (WHO-AQGs). CONCLUSIONS This study revealed a significant positive association between O₃ and pediatric pneumonia hospital admissions. Our findings substantially strengthen the evidence base for the adverse health impacts of O₃, underscoring the importance of O₃ pollution control and management in reducing the public health burden of pediatric pneumonia.
Humans ; Ozone/analysis* ; China/epidemiology* ; Pneumonia/chemically induced* ; Child, Preschool ; Male ; Female ; Infant ; Cross-Over Studies ; Air Pollutants/analysis* ; Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data* ; Child ; Cities/epidemiology* ; Air Pollution/adverse effects* ; Infant, Newborn ; Environmental Exposure/adverse effects*

OBJECTIVE: To assess health equity in the Yangtze River region to improve understanding of the correlation between hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) and socioeconomic factors. METHODS: From 2014-2016, data on HFMD incidence, population statistics, economic indicators, and meteorology from 26 cities along the Yangtze River were analyzed. A multi-city random-effects meta-analysis was performed to study the relationship between temperature and HFMD transmission, and health equity was assessed with respect to socio-economic impact. RESULTS: Over the study period, 919,458 HFMD cases were reported, with Shanghai (162,303) having the highest incidence and Tongling (5,513) having the lowest. Males were more commonly affected (male-to-female ratio, 1.49:1). The exposure-response relationship had an M-shaped curve, with two HFMD peaks occurring at 4 °C and 26 °C. The relative risk had two peaks at 1.30 °C (1.834, 95% CI: 1.204-2.794) and 31.4 °C (1.143, 95% CI: 0.901-1.451), forming an M shape, with the first peak higher than the second. The most significant impact of temperature on HFMD was observed between -2 °C and 18.1 °C. The concentration index (0.2463) indicated moderate concentration differences, whereas the Theil index (0.0418) showed low inequality in distribution. CONCLUSION The incidence of HFMD varied across cities, particularly with changes in temperature. Economically prosperous areas showed higher risks, indicating disparities. Targeted interventions in these areas are crucial for mitigating the risk of HFMD.
Female ; Humans ; Male ; China/epidemiology* ; Cities/epidemiology* ; Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease/transmission* ; Incidence ; Risk Factors ; Temperature

OBJECTIVE: To assess the short-term lag effects of climate and air pollution on hospital admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and to develop deep learning-based models for daily hospital admission prediction. METHODS: A multi-city study was conducted in Tokyo's 23 wards, Osaka City, and Nagoya City. Random forest models were employed to assess the synergistic short-term lag effects (lag0, lag3, and lag7) of climate and air pollutants on hospitalization for five cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and two respiratory diseases (RDs). Furthermore, we developed hybrid deep learning models that integrated an autoencoder (AE) with a Long Short-Term Memory network (AE+LSTM) to predict daily hospital admissions. RESULTS: On the day of exposure (lag0), air pollutants, particularly nitrogen oxides (NO x), exhibited the strongest influence on hospital admissions for CVD and RD, with pronounced effects observed for hypertension (I10-I15), ischemic heart disease (I20), arterial and capillary diseases (I70-I79), and lower respiratory infections (J20-J22 and J40-J47). At longer lags (lag3 and lag7), temperature and precipitation were more influential predictors. The AE+LSTM model outperformed the standard LSTM, improving the prediction accuracy by 32.4% for RD in Osaka and 20.94% for CVD in Nagoya. CONCLUSION Our findings reveal the dynamic, time-varying health risks associated with environmental exposure and demonstrate the utility of deep learnings in predicting short-term hospital admissions. This framework can inform early warning systems, enhance healthcare resource allocation, and support climate-adaptive public health strategies.
Humans ; Hospitalization/statistics & numerical data* ; Cardiovascular Diseases/epidemiology* ; Japan/epidemiology* ; Air Pollutants/analysis* ; Air Pollution/adverse effects* ; Cities/epidemiology* ; Climate ; Respiratory Tract Diseases/epidemiology* ; Deep Learning ; Male

BACKGROUND: There are few multi-city studies on the association between temperature and mortality in basin climates. This study was based on the Sichuan Basin in southwest China to assess the association of basin temperature with non-accidental mortality in the population and with the temperature-related mortality burden. METHODS: Daily mortality data, meteorological and air pollution data were collected for four cities in the Sichuan Basin of southwest China. We used a two-stage time-series analysis to quantify the association between temperature and non-accidental mortality in each city, and a multivariate meta-analysis was performed to obtain the overall cumulative risk. The attributable fractions (AFs) were calculated to access the mortality burden attributable to non-optimal temperature. Additionally, we performed a stratified analyses by gender, age group, education level, and marital status. RESULTS: A total of 751,930 non-accidental deaths were collected in our study. Overall, 10.16% of non-accidental deaths could be attributed to non-optimal temperatures. A majority of temperature-related non-accidental deaths were caused by low temperature, accounting for 9.10% (95% eCI: 5.50%, 12.19%), and heat effects accounted for only 1.06% (95% eCI: 0.76%, 1.33%). The mortality burden attributable to non-optimal temperatures was higher among those under 65 years old, females, those with a low education level, and those with an alternative marriage status. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggested that a significant association between non-optimal temperature and non-accidental mortality. Those under 65 years old, females, and those with a low educational level or alternative marriage status had the highest attributable burden.
Female ; Humans ; China/epidemiology* ; Cities ; Cold Temperature ; Hot Temperature ; Mortality ; Temperature ; Time Factors ; Middle Aged ; Male

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to analyze the current indoor radon level and estimate the population risk of radon-induced lung cancer in urban areas of China. METHODS: Using the passive monitoring method, a new survey on indoor radon concentrations was conducted in 2,875 dwellings across 31 provincial capital cities in Chinese mainland from 2018 to 2023. The attributable risk of lung cancer induced by indoor radon exposure was estimated based on the risk assessment model. RESULTS: The arithmetic mean (AM) and geometric mean (GM) of indoor radon concentrations were 65 Bq/m³ and 55 Bq/m³, respectively, with 13.6% of measured dwellings exceeding 100 Bq/m³ and 0.6% exceeding 300 Bq/m³. The estimated number of lung cancer deaths induced by indoor radon exposure was 150,795, accounting for 20.30% (95% CI: 20.21%-20.49%) of the lung cancer death toll. CONCLUSION This study provided the most recent data on national indoor radon levels in urban areas and the attributable risk of lung cancer. These results served as an important foundation for further research on the disease burden of indoor radon exposure and radon mitigation efforts.
Radon/analysis* ; China/epidemiology* ; Air Pollution, Indoor/analysis* ; Lung Neoplasms/etiology* ; Humans ; Cities/epidemiology* ; Air Pollutants, Radioactive/adverse effects* ; Neoplasms, Radiation-Induced/etiology* ; Risk Assessment ; Radiation Monitoring

Humans ; Temperature ; Cities/epidemiology* ; Hot Temperature ; Cardiovascular Diseases/epidemiology* ; China/epidemiology* ; Mortality

Objective: To explore the present situation and epidemiological characteristics of pesticide poisoning in Chengdu City from 2012 to 2021, and to provide scientific evidence for further prevention and control. Methods: In January 2022, the pesticide poisoning report cards of Chengdu City from 2012 to 2021 were collected from the China Disease Control and Prevention Information System. The data of the report card was reorganized and the distribution characteristics of pesticide poisoning such as time, region, gender, age and pesticide types were analyzed. Results: 14326 cases of pesticide poisoning were reported in Chengdu City from 2012 to 2021, 651 deaths, and the fatality rate was 4.54%. The cases of productive pesticide poisoning and unproductive pesticide poisoning were 504 and 13822, respectively. The fatality rates of productive and unproductive pesticide poisoning were 1.39% and 4.66%, which were significant different (χ(2)=11.99, P=0.001). The highest reported cases of pesticide poisoning was in 2013 (1779) and the lowest in 2021 (1047). The number of reported cases showed a downward trend year by year (t=-12.30, P<0.001), and the fatality rates also showed a downward trend year by year (χ(2)(trend)=25.48, P<0.001). The fluctuation range of unproductive pesticide poisoning cases in each month of the year was small, and the productive pesticide poisoning mainly occurred from May to August. The regions with the largest number of reported poisoning cases were Pengzhou (1620), Jianyang (1393), Jintang (1266) and Qionglai (1158). The high incidence of poisoning was among 25-54 years old (50.21%, 7193/14326). The fatality rate in the age group 75-96 years old was the highest (8.98%, 95/1058), and the fatality rates increased gradually with age (χ(2)(trend)=186.03, P<0.001). The pesticides causing poisoning were mainly insecticide (43.86%, 6284/14326) and herbicides (35.75%, 5121/14326). Herbicides paraquat had the highest fatality rate (9.54%, 286/2998) . Conclusion: Pesticide poisoning in Chengdu City is mainly unproductive poisoning. Health education should be carried out for key areas and people, and the control of highly toxic pesticides such as insecticide and herbicides should be strengthened.
Humans ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Adult ; Middle Aged ; Insecticides ; Pesticides ; Herbicides ; Paraquat ; Cities ; Poisoning/epidemiology*

From 2015 to 2019, the annual average incidence rate of scarlet fever was 7.80/100 000 in Yantai City, which showed an increasing trend since 2017 (χ²_trend=233.59, P<0.001). The peak period of this disease was from April to July and November to January of the next year. The ratio of male to female was 1.49∶1, with a higher prevalence among cases aged 3 to 9 years (2 357/2 552, 92.36%). Children in kindergartens, primary and middle school students, and scattered children were the high risk population, with the incidence rate of 159.86/100 000, 25.57/100 000 and 26.77/100 000, respectively. The global spatial auto-correlation analysis showed that the global Moran's I index of the reported incidence rate of scarlet fever in Yantai from 2015 to 2019 was 0.28, 0.29, 0.44, 0.48, and 0.22, respectively (all P values<0.05), suggesting that the incidence rate of scarlet fever in Yantai from 2015 to 2019 was spatial clustering. The local spatial auto-correlation analysis showed that the "high-high" clustering areas were mainly located in Laizhou City, Zhifu District, Haiyang City, Fushan District and Kaifa District, while the "low-high" clustering areas were mainly located in Haiyang City and Fushan District.
Child ; Humans ; Male ; Female ; Scarlet Fever/epidemiology* ; Spatial Analysis ; Cities/epidemiology* ; Seasons ; Risk Factors ; Incidence ; Cluster Analysis ; China/epidemiology*

Objective: To analyze the residents' sense of acquisition (recognition, perceptibility and satisfaction) and influencing factors in China's Sanitary City Initiative. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from December 2020 to February 2021. The data about the residents' sense of acquisition were collected by using questionnaire from 2 465 residents who were aged ≥18 years and had lived in local communities for at least one year in 31, 14 and 16 cities with national sanitary city title in eastern, central and western China the influencing factors of residents' sense of acquisition in China's Sanitary City Initiative were analyzed by using multivariate multilevel model. Results: The total score of residents' sense of acquisition in China's Sanitary City Initiative was 231.15±32.45. After converting the scores according to the 100-score standardized method, the results showed that the recognition score, perception score and the satisfaction score were 85.02, 59.08 and 61.42, respectively. The results of influencing factors analysis showed that education level, gender, marital status, age, prevalence of physical exercise and self-assessment of health status were correlated with the scores of residents' recognition (β:1.24-2.54,all P<0.05); the concentration of inhalable fine particles , the green coverage of built-up area, the level of GDP per capita and the type of residential community, prevalence of physical exercise and self-assessment of health status were correlated with the score of residents' perception (β:1.76-8.86,all P<0.05); the concentration of inhalable fine particles , the green coverage of built-up area, the level of GDP per capita and the type of residential community, education level, prevalence of physical exercise and self-assessment of health status were correlated with the score of residents' satisfaction (β:1.34-6.26,all P<0.05). Conclusions: The total score of residents' sense of acquisition in China's Sanitary City Initiative was relatively high, indicating that the policy has been widely recognized. The detailed management of policy implementation should be strengthened in the future, and more attention needs to be paid to actual needs of the residents to further improve the residents' sense of acquisition in China's Sanitary City Initiative.
Humans ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Cities ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; China/epidemiology* ; Health Status ; Exercise

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the distribution characteristics of emerging and reemerging Oncomelania hupensis snails after the criteria for transmission control of schistosomiasis were achieved in China, so as to provide insights into assessment of schistosomiasis transmission risk and formulation of snail control strategies during the elimination phase. METHODS: O. hupensis survey data in China from 2015 to 2021 were collected from the National Schistosomiasis Pevention and Control Information Management System, and the distribution characteristics of emerging and reemerging O. hupensis snails were descriptively analyzed. RESULTS: Emerging and reemerging O. hupensis snails were identified in China each year from 2015 to 2021, with relatively larger areas with emerging and reemerging O. hupensis snail habitats in 2016 and 2021, and relatively higher numbers of counties (districts) where emerging and reemerging O. hupensis snails were detected in 2016 and 2021. A total of 4 586.30 hm² of emerging O. hupensis snail habitats were found in 10 schistosomiasis-endemic provinces of China (except Fujian and Yunnan Provinces) from 2015 to 2021, with 96.80% in Anhui, Hunan and Hubei provinces, where marshland and lake endemic foci were predominant. A total of 21 023.90 hm² of reemerging O. hupensis snail habitats were found in 12 schistosomiasis-endemic provinces of China from 2015 to 2021, with 97.67% in six provinces of Hubei, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Yunnan and Anhui, where marshland and lake and hilly endemic regions were predominant. Emerging snail habitats were found in 15.08% of all schistosomiasisendemic counties (districts) in China from 2015 to 2021, and 78.75% of all emerging snail habitats were identified in 11 schistosomiasis-endemic counties (districts), with the largest area of emerging snail habitats found in Lixian County, Hunan Province (645.00 hm²). Reemerging snail habitats were found in 47.67% of all schistosomiasis-endemic counties (districts) in China from 2015 to 2021, and 43.29% of all reemerging snail habitats were identified in 11 schistosomiasis-endemic counties (districts), with the largest area of reemerging snail habitats found in Weishan Li and Hui Autonomous County of Hunan Province (1 579.70 hm²). CONCLUSIONS Emerging and reemerging O. hupensis snails were identified in China each year from 2015 to 2021, with much larger areas of reemerging snail habitats than emerging snail habitats, and larger numbers of schistosomiasis-endemic provinces and counties (districts) with reemerging snails were found that those of provinces and counties (districts) with emerging snails. Specific snail control interventions are required tailored to the causes of emerging and reemerging snail habitats. Both emergence and reemergence of O. hupensis snails should be paid attention to in marshland and lake endemic areas, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Shanghai Municipality and Zhejiang Province where schistosomiasis had been eliminated, and reemergence of O. hupensis snails should be given a high priority in hilly areas. In addition, monitoring of O. hupensis snails should be reinforced in snail-free areas after flooding.
Humans ; China/epidemiology* ; Schistosomiasis/prevention & control* ; Cities ; Ecosystem ; Lakes