Long-term variations of urban –Rural disparities in infectious disease burden of over 8.44 million children, adolescents, and youth in China from 2013 to 2021: An observational study

The objective of our study was to evaluate the long-term urban –rural disparities in infectious diseases among children, adolescents, and youths in China, while also examining the specific diseases driving these disparities. Methods and findingsThis observational study examined data on 43 notifiable infectious diseases from 8,442,956 cases from individuals aged 4 to 24 years, with 4,487,043 cases in urban areas and 3,955,913 in rural areas. The data from 2013 to 2021 were obtained from China ’s Notifiable Infectious Disease Surveillance System. The 43 infectious diseases were categorized into 7 categories: vaccine-preventable, bacterial, gastrointestinal and enterovirus, sexually transmitted and bloodborne, vectorborne, zoonotic, and quarantinable diseases. The calculation of infectio us disease incidence was stratified by urban and rural areas. We used the index of incidence rate ratio (IRR), calculated by dividing the urban incidence rate by the rural incidence rate for each disease category, to assess the urban–rural disparity.During the nine-year study period, most notifiab le infectious diseases in both urban and rural areas exhibited either a decreased or stable pattern. However, a significant and progressively widening urban–rural disparity in notifiable infectious diseases was observed. Children, adolescents, and youths in urban areas experienced a higher average yearly incidence compared to their rural counterparts, with rates of 439 per 100,000 compared to 2...
Source: PLoS Medicine - Category: Internal Medicine Authors: Source Type: research