Impact of air pollutants on influenza-like illness outpatient visits under urbanization process in the sub-center of Beijing, China

Influenza-like illness (ILI) is a group of illnesses defined by influenza-like clinical manifestations like fever, cough and sore throat. Many respiratory illnesses, including seasonal influenza and human infection with other respiratory pathogens, are characterized as ILI, and approximately half of patients with ILI seek healthcare (Ma et al., 2018). Studies have showed that influenza had an important contribution to the disease burden of influenza-like illness (Feng et al., 2020; Fowlkes et al., 2013). About 291–646 thousand seasonal influenza-associated respiratory deaths occur annually worldwide (Iuliano et al., 2018; Paget et al., 2019). The people aged ≥65 years and <5 years contributed greatly to mortality and morbidity burden in China due to influenza (Li et al., 2021a). Many factors can affect the influenza epidemic, such as individual and environmental factors (Lai et al., 2013; Mertz et al., 2013). The urbanization leads to many challenges for the epidemiology of infectious diseases and the cities are becoming important centers for the transmission of infectious diseases (Alirol et al., 2011; Neiderud, 2015).

The urbanization is mainly characterized by urban population growth and expansion of construction land (Liu et al., 2021). With the continuous advancement of urbanization, more carbon emissions may be generated (Aslan et al., 2021), making the air pollution problem more serious. Air pollution can cause serious harm to the human health and a variety of respiratory diseases (Manisalidis et al., 2020). The urbanization has a complex and vital impact on influenza epidemic (Dalziel et al., 2018; Zachreson et al., 2018), and the speed of urbanization may be closely associated with the intensity and the peak of influenza epidemic, and may be influencing influenza epidemic along with climatic factors.

Tongzhou District of Beijing is the municipal administrative center of Beijing. In recent years, the urbanization process has developed rapidly. We aimed to explore the impact of air pollution on the risk of ILI outpatient visits under urbanization process in the sub-center of Beijing, which may help the government to formulate the strategies of influenza prevention and air control policies in the process of urbanization in the similar regions.

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