Relationship between meteorological factors and influenza in Xining, China

Objective To explore the association of meteorological factors with the incidence of influenza in Xining, China.

Methods The zero-inflated negative binomial regression model was used to analyze the effects of meteorological factors (including daily mean air temperature, daily temperature difference, daily mean air pressure, daily mean relative humidity, daily mean wind speed, daily sunshine duration, and daily evaporation on the daily number of influenza cases from 2012 to 2019.

Results The negative binomial distribution part of the model showed that the daily mean air temperature (β =-0.104, 95% CI: -0.112~-0.096), daily mean relative humidity (β =-0.015, 95% CI: -0.022~-0.008), daily mean wind speed (β = 0.467, 95% CI: 0.388~0.546) and daily sunshine duration (β = -0.032, 95% CI: -0.062~-0.001) significantly affected the daily number of influenza cases. The zero-inflated distribution part of the model showed that the daily mean relative humidity (γ =-0.188, 95% CI: -0.303~-0.072), daily mean wind speed (γ =-1.452, 95% CI: -2.663~-0.242) and daily evaporation (γ =-0.321, 95% CI: -0.636~-0.005) was statistically significant for the effect on incident of influenza.

Conclusion Daily mean air temperature, daily temperature difference, daily mean relative humidity, daily mean wind speed and daily evaporation may associate with the incidence of influenza, meteorological factors might be considered to be performed in practical prevention and control efforts for influenza.