IJERPH, Vol. 18, Pages 11615: Short-Term Impacts of Meteorology, Air Pollution and Internet Search Data on Viral Diarrhea Infection among Children in Jilin Province, China (International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health)

The influence of natural environmental factors and social factors on children`s viral diarrhea remains inconclusive. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effects of temperature, precipitation, air quality, and social attention on children`s viral diarrhea in temperate regions of China by using the distribution lag nonlinear model (DLNM). We found that low temperature affected the increase in children`s viral diarrhea infection for about 1 week, while high temperature and heavy precipitation affected the increase in children`s viral diarrhea infection risk for at least 3 weeks. As the increase of the air pollution index may change the daily life of the public, the infection of children`s viral diarrhea can be restrained within 10 days, but the risk of infection will increase after 2 weeks. The extreme network search may reflect the local outbreak of viral diarrhea, which will significantly improve the infection risk. The above factors can help the departments of epidemic prevention and control create early warnings of high-risk outbreaks in time and assist the public to deal with the outbreak of children`s viral diarrhea.