BackgroundDisaster is a serious public health issue. Health professionals and community residents are main players in disaster responses but their knowledge levels of disaster medicine are not readily available. This study aimed to evaluate knowledge levels and training needs of disaster medicine among potential disaster responders and presented a necessity to popularize disaster medicine education.MethodsA self-reporting questionnaire survey on knowledge level and training needs of disaster medicine was conducted in Shanghai, China, in 2012. A total of randomly selected 547 health professionals, 456 medical students, and 1,526 local residents provided intact information. The total response rate was 93.7%.ResultsOverall, 1.3% of these participants have received systematic disaster medicine training. News media (87.1%) was the most common channel to acquire disaster medicine knowledge. Although health professionals were more knowledgeable than community residents, their knowledge structure of disaster medicine was not intact. Medical teachers were more knowledgeable than medical practitioners and health administrators (p = 0.002). Clinicians performed better than public health physicians (p<0.001), whereas public health students performed better than clinical medical students (p<0.001). In community residents, education background significantly affected the knowledge level on disaster medicine (p<0.001). Training needs of disaster medicine were generally high among the surveyed. ‘Lecture’ and ‘practical training’ were preferred teaching methods. The selected key and interested contents on disaster medicine training were similar between health professionals and medical students, while the priorities chosen by local residents were quite different from health professionals and medical students (p<0.001).ConclusionsTraditional clinical-oriented medical education might lead to a huge gap between the knowledge level on disaster medicine and the current needs of disaster preparedness. Continuing medical education and public education plans on disaster medicine via media should be practice-oriented, and selectively applied to different populations and take the knowledge levels and training needs into consideration.

Toxoplasma gondii transmitted from blood donors to receiving patients has become a concern as numerous articles about the epidemiology of T. gondii infection in blood donors from different provinces have been published in China. This study aimed to evaluate the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in Chinese blood donors using a meta-analysis. A total of 40 eligible studies, published from 1986 to 2017 and covering 18 provinces and municipalities were included. Among a total of 49,784 Chinese blood donors, the overall IgG seroprevalence of T. gondii infection was 6.26% (95% CI: 4.62%–8.13%). The highest prevalence was in the Northeast of China and the lowest in Central China. The infection rate increased slowly over the years, but not significantly. A statistically significant correlation was found between the seroprevalence of T. gondii infection and the detection method and educational level (p < 0.01). There was no relationship between age, gender, occupation and blood type and seroprevalence of T. gondii (p > 0.05). The prevalence of antibodies to T. gondii in Chinese blood donors was lower than in other countries, but the risk of transfusion-transmitted toxoplasmosis still exits. More concise methods are still needed to evaluate the possibility of transfusion-transmitted toxoplasmosis from blood donors.

ABSTRACTObjective: The incidence, types, and influencing factors of injuries due to snow-ice disasters are essential for public health preparedness. This study was designed to assess such factors of injuries during the 22-day snowstorm in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China, in 2008.Methods: A multistage cluster probability sampling method was applied to select the study population in urban, rural, and mountainous areas. Data including sociodemographic characteristics, frequency, and types of injuries during the snowstorm between January 20 and February 10, 2008, were obtained by face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire and by checking the participants' medical records. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were used to determine the factors significantly associated with the risk of injuries.Results: A total of 3169 residents of 1416 families took part in this survey. In 581 residents, 602 injuries were identified. Incidences of frostbite, falling injury, and traffic accident–related injury were 12.78%, 5.30%, and 0.50%, respectively. Injury occurred more frequently in women than in men (odds ratio [OR], 1.42; 95% CI, 1.19-1.70). Frostbite occurred more frequently in women than in men (adjusted OR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.43-2.41) and more frequently in urban areas than in other areas (adjusted OR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.24-2.20). Travel by bus or car, wearing a scarf, wearing gloves, wearing a raincoat, reducing outdoor activity, and performing regular physical exercise were independent protective factors of frostbite, with an adjusted OR (95% CI) of 0.35 (0.20-0.61), 0.45 (0.33-0.62), 0.35 (0.26-0.48), 0.45 (0.33-0.61), 0.36 (0.27-0.48), and 0.18 (0.13-0.24), respectively. Falling injury occurred more often in mountainous areas than in other areas (adjusted OR, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.27-2.42). Age 45 years or older, working outside more than 15 days, and wearing a raincoat were independent risk factors of falling injury, with an adjusted OR (95% CI) of 2.30 (1.60-3.32), 1.92 (1.36-2.72), and 2.21 (1.56-3.11), respectively. Falling and traffic accident–related injuries were mainly due to slippery roads.Conclusions: Frostbite and falling injury were the major injuries caused by an unprecedented snow-ice disaster. Keeping warm and maintaining regular physical exercise appeared to reduce frostbite risk. Public health intervention also reduced the risk of falling and traffic accident–related injuries.(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:363-369)

Many studies have shown that the relationship between ambient temperature, relative humidity and mumps has been highlighted. However, these studies showed inconsistent results. Therefore, the goal of our study is to conduct a meta-analysis to clarify this relationship and to quantify the size of these effects as well as the potential factors. Systematic literature researches on PubMed, Embase.com, Web of Science Core Collection, Cochrane library, Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) were performed up to February 7, 2022 for articles analyzing the relationships between ambient temperature, relative humidity and incidence of mumps. Eligibility assessment and data extraction were conducted independently by two researchers, and meta-analysis was performed to synthesize these data. We also assessed sources of heterogeneity by study region, regional climate, study population. Finally, a total of 14 studies were screened out from 1154 records and identified to estimate the relationship between ambient temperature, relative humidity and incidence of mumps. It was found that per 1 °C increase and decrease in the ambient temperature were significantly associated with increased incidence of mumps with RR of 1.0191 (95% CI: 1.0129–1.0252, I2 = 92.0%, Egger’s test P = 0.001, N = 13) for per 1 °C increase and 1.0244 (95% CI: 1.0130–1.0359, I2 = 86.6%, Egger’s test P = 0.077, N = 9) for per 1 °C decrease. As to relative humidity, only high effect of relative humidity was slightly significant (for per 1 unit increase with RR of 1.0088 (95% CI: 1.0027–1.0150), I2 = 72.6%, Egger’s test P = 0.159, N = 9). Subgroup analysis showed that regional climate with temperate areas may have a higher risk of incidence of mumps than areas with subtropical climate in cold effect of ambient temperature and low effect of relative humidity. In addition, meta-regression analysis showed that regional climate may affect the association between incidence of mumps and cold effect of ambient temperature. Our results suggest ambient temperature could affect the incidence of mumps significantly, of which both hot and cold effect of ambient temperature may increase the incidence of mumps. Further studies are still needed to clarify the relationship between the incidence of mumps and ambient temperature outside of east Asia, and many other meteorological factors. These results of ambient temperature are important for establishing preventive measures on mumps, especially in temperate areas. The policy-makers should pay more attention to ambient temperature changes and take protective measures in advance.