Model-based risk assessment of dengue fever transmission in Xiamen City, China.

Background: Quantitative assessment of the risk of local transmission from imported dengue cases makes a great challenge to the development of public health in China. The purpose of this study is to observe the risk of mosquito-borne transmission in Xiamen City through ecological and insecticide resistance monitoring. Quantitative evaluation of mosquito insecticide resistance, community population and the number of imported cases affecting the transmission of dengue fever (DF) in Xiamen was carried out based on transmission dynamics model, so as to reveal the correlation between key risk factors and DF transmission. Methods: Based on the dynamics model and combined with the epidemiological characteristics of DF in Xiamen City, a transmission dynamics model was built to simulate the secondary cases caused by imported cases to evaluate the transmission risk of DF, and to explore the influence of mosquito insecticide resistance, community population and imported cases on the epidemic situation of DF in Xiamen City. Results: For the transmission model of DF, when the community population is between 10,000 and 25,000, changing the number of imported DF cases and the mortality rate of mosquitoes will have an impact on the spread of indigenous DF cases, however, changing the birth rate of mosquitoes did not gain more effect on the spread of local DF transmission. Conclusions: Through the quantitative evaluation of the model, this study determined that the mosquito resistance index has an important influence on the local transmission of dengue fever caused by imported cases in Xiamen, and the Brayton index can also affect the local transmission of the disease.

[Assessment of quality of life for laryngeal cancer patients after laryngectomy].

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to develop a rating scale of quality of life (QOL) which fits laryngeal cancer patients after laryngectomy. METHOD: The item pool was developed on the definition of QOL from WHO and the principles and procedures of ddveloping a rating scale. Five methods had been used in the item selection including, such as subjective evaluation methods, discrete tendency, correlation coefficient method, stepwise regression analysis, and factor analysis. The survey was conducted in 126 laryngeal cancer patients after laryngectomy in order to assess the reliability and validity of the rating scale. RESULT: (1) A rating scale of QOL which fits laryngeal cancer patients after laryngectomy including six domains and 27 items is was developed. (2) The split-half reliability coefficient of the scale is 0.802, and the Cronbach' α coefficient is 0.794. (3) It is inferred from the correlation analysis that there are strong correlation between items and their own domains; conversely there are weak correlation between items and other domains. Correlation coefficient is 0.731 between total score and self-rating score. CONCLUSION: The reliability and validity of the rating scale is proved to work well.