No abstract

(1) Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that seriously endangers health and restricts economic and social development. Shandong Province has the second largest population in China with a high TB burden. This study aimed to detect the epidemic characteristics and spatio-temporal pattern of reported TB incidence in Shandong Province and provide a scientific basis to develop more effective strategies for TB prevention and control. (2) Methods: The age, gender, and occupational distribution characteristics of the cases were described. The Seasonal-Trend LOESS decomposition method, global spatial autocorrelation statistic, local spatial autocorrelation statistics, and spatial-temporal scanning were used to decompose time series, analyze the spatial aggregation, detect cold and hot spots, and analyze the spatio-temporal aggregation of reported incidence. (3) Results: A total of 135,185 TB cases were reported in Shandong Province during the five years 2016–2020. Men and farmers are the main populations of TB patients. The time-series of reported tuberculosis incidence had a long-term decreasing trend with clear seasonality. There was aggregation in the spatial distribution, and the areas with a high reported incidence of TB were mainly clustered in the northwest and southeast of Shandong. The temporal scan also yielded similar results. (4) Conclusions: Health policy authorities should develop targeted prevention and control measures based on epidemiological characteristics to prevent and control TB more effectively.

Evidence between air pollution and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is inconsistent and limited in China. In this study, we aim to examine the associations between air pollutants and hospital admissions for COPD, hoping to provide practical advice for prevention and control of COPD. Hospital admissions for COPD were collected from a Grade-A tertiary hospital in Jinan from 2014 to 2020. A generalized additive model (GAM) was used to examine the associations between air pollutants and hospital admissions for COPD. Stratified analysis was also conducted for gender, age (20–74 and ≥75 years), and season (warm and cold). The avoidable number of COPD hospital admissions was calculated when air pollutants were controlled under national and WHO standards. Over the study period, a total of 4,012 hospital admissions for COPD were recorded. The daily hospital admissions of COPD increased by 2.36% (95% CI : 0.13–4.65%) and 2.39% (95% CI : 0.19–4.65%) for per 10 μg/m 3 increase of NO 2 and SO 2 concentrations at lag2, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in health effects caused by increased concentrations of PM 2.5 , PM 10 , CO, and O 3 . The health effects of increased SO 2 concentration were stronger in women, the ≥75 years old people and the cold season. About 2 (95% CI : 0–3), 64 (95% CI : 4–132) and 86 (95% CI : 6–177) COPD admissions would be avoided when the SO 2 concentration was controlled below the NAAQS-II (150 μg/m 3 ), NAAQS-I (50 μg/m 3 ), and WHO’s AQG2021 standard (40 μg/m 3 ), respectively. These findings suggest that short-term exposure to NO 2 and SO 2 was associated with increased risks of daily COPD admissions, especially for females and the elderly. The control of SO 2 and NO 2 under the national and WHO standards could avoid more COPD admissions and obtain greater health benefits. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11356-023-25567-8.