The effect of ambient temperature on hand, foot and mouth disease in Qingdao, China, 2014-2018

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a kind of infection gastrointestinal disease. The present study aims to explore the association between ambient temperature and HFMD in Qingdao. A distributed lag nonlinear model with Poisson distribution was adopted to explore the effects of daily mean temperature on HFMD incidence. Our results found that the high temperature had acute and short-term effects and then declined rapidly along the lag days, with the maximum risk occurring 0 day of exposure. Compared with low temperature, higher effects were observed for high-temperature exposure. Overall, we found that the association between temperature and HFMD incidence was non-linear, exhibiting an approximate "J" shape, with peak value occurring at 30.5celcius (RR = 2.208, 95% CI: 1.995-2.444). Our findings suggest that ambient temperature is significantly associated with the incidence of HFMD in Qingdao. Monitoring ambient temperature changes is an appropriate recommendation to prevent HFMD.