Document Type
Capstone Experience
Graduation Date
12-2022
Degree Name
Master of Public Health
Department
Epidemiology
First Committee Member
David Brett-Major, MD MPH
Second Committee Member
Joseph Fauver, PhD
Third Committee Member
Abraham Mengist, PhD
Abstract
The World Health Organization estimates that approximately one-sixth of illnesses and disabilities suffered worldwide are due to vector-borne diseases, and more than half of the world’s population is at risk. Additionally, vector-borne diseases have significant socioeconomic impacts and inflate health inequities, with the greatest burden on poor populations. Lyme disease is the top tick-borne disease in the state of California and West Nile virus (WNV) is the top mosquito-borne disease in the state of California. Vector-borne diseases have a high sensitivity to climatic factors. Research shows that ongoing trends of increasing temperature and varying weather conditions will weaken recent global progress against vector-borne diseases. Public health practice can be influenced by the pursuit of strengthening current disease control efforts and increasing resilience to long term climate change. This paper aims to analyze climate factors and their relationship with Lyme disease rates and West Nile virus rates in the state of California over the past decade. Data was gathered from the California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration datasets on the National Centers for Environmental Information, and the United States Census Bureau. Statistically significant linear relationships were found between Lyme disease rate and annual precipitation with a positive correlation coefficient, between Lyme disease rate and average annual temperature with a negative correlation coefficient, and between WNV rate and average annual temperature with a positive correlation coefficient. There was not a statistically significant linear relationship between WNV rate and annual precipitation.
The World Health Organization estimates that approximately one-sixth of illnesses and disabilities suffered worldwide are due to vector
Recommended Citation
Dubas, Emma, "An Analysis of Climate Factors and their Relationship with Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus in California from 2011 to 2020" (2022). Capstone Experience. 228.
https://digitalcommons.unmc.edu/coph_slce/228