A study on epidemiological characteristic of measles in Wenzhou among children younger than 7 years / 预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the risk factors for measles among children under 7 years old in Wenzhou, and to provideevidence for establishing scientific strategies on measles elimination. Methods A case-control study was carried out usingmeasles cases(age <7) reported between 2013 to 2015 from the Wenzhou Measles Surveillance System (WZMSS) . Asample of 198 cases were generated from the WZMSS confirmed cases of measles, and 371 controls were generated from theWZMSS excluded cases of measles. General characteristics and potential risk factors were collected, such as sex, age,original place of residence, length of stay in Wenzhou, history of hospital exposure and measles immunization history(i.e.receiving measles-containing vaccine) and so on. An univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used toassess the association between different factors and the incidence of measles , and to investigate the risk factors that influencethe incidence of measles. Results A total of 198 measles cases among children under age 7 were reported between 2013 to2015 in Wenzhou, taking up 67.58% of the total reported measles cases of WZMSS, and suggesting an average of annualincidence rate of 8.85/10 million. The incidence ratio of male to female was 1.57:1.00. Children of 6-8 months old had thehighest incidence rate of 151.66/10 million. The incidence rate among migrant children was 15.01/10 million and wassignificantly higher thanlocal children(P<0.05) . Univariate logistic regression showed that the incidence of measles weresignificantly associated with age, original place of residence, length of stay in Wenzhou, history of hospital exposure andmeasles immunization history(P<0.05) . Multivariate logistic regression showed that migrant children(OR =2.28, 95%CI:1.56-3.33), no measles immunization history(OR=3.83, 95%CI: 2.48-5.92) and having hospital exposure(OR =2.35, 95%CI: 1.58-3.47) were risk factors for the incidence of measles. Conclusion Children of 6-8 months old had thehighest incidence rate of measles. Migrant children, nomeasles immunization history and having hospital exposurecould increase the incidence rate of measles among children younger than 7.