Health behaviors and the risk of COVID-19 incidence: A Bayesian hierarchical spatial analysisopen access
- Authors
- Kim, Jeehyun; Yoo, Daesung; Hong, Kwan; Chun, Byung Chul
- Issue Date
- Feb-2023
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Keywords
- SARS-CoV-2; Incidence; Health Behavior; Influenza; Vaccination
- Citation
- Journal of Infection and Public Health, v.16, no.2, pp 190 - 195
- Pages
- 6
- Indexed
- SCIE
SCOPUS
- Journal Title
- Journal of Infection and Public Health
- Volume
- 16
- Number
- 2
- Start Page
- 190
- End Page
- 195
- URI
- https://scholarworks.korea.ac.kr/kumedicine/handle/2021.sw.kumedicine/62363
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jiph.2022.12.013
- ISSN
- 1876-0341
1876-035X
- Abstract
- Objectives
Effective infection control measures, based on a sound understanding of geographical community-specific health behavioral characteristics, should be implemented from the early stage of disease transmission. However, few studies have explored health behaviors as a possible contributor to COVID-19 infection in the spatial context. We investigated health behaviors as potential factors of COVID-19 incidence in the early phase of transmission in the spatial context.
Methods
We extracted COVID-19 cumulative case data as of February 25, 2021—one day prior to nationwide COVID-19 vaccination commencement—regarding health behaviors and covariates, including health condition and socio-economic factors, at the municipal level from publicly available datasets. The spatial autocorrelation of incidence was analyzed using Global Moran’s I statistics. The associations between health behaviors and COVID-19 incidence were examined using Besag–York–Mollie models to deal with spatial autocorrelation of residuals.
Results
The COVID-19 incidence had positive spatial autocorrelation across South Korea (I = 0.584, p = 0.001). The results suggest that individuals vaccinated against influenza in the preceding year had a negative association with COVID-19 incidence (relative risk=0.913, 95 % Credible Interval=0.838–0.997), even after adjusting for covariates.
Conclusions
Our ecological study suggests an association between COVID-19 infection and health behaviors, especially influenza vaccination, in the early stage of COVID-19 transmission at the municipal level.
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Collections - 1. Basic Science > Department of Preventive Medicine > 1. Journal Articles
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