Background
Methods
Data acquisition on campylobacteriosis cases
Selection of geographical frameworks and scales
Geographical unita
| Number of unitsb
| Description and sources of geographical data |
---|---|---|
Administrative
| ||
Municipalities | 1,063 | Municipalities (as determined by provincial legislation) or an area that is deemed to be equivalent to a municipality for statistical reporting purposes (e.g. cities, cantons). Source: Statistics Canada, 2006. |
Census consolidated subdivisions | 903 | Grouping of adjacent census subdivisions. Generally the smaller, more urban census subdivisions (towns, villages, etc.) are combined with the surrounding, larger, more rural census subdivision in order to create a geographic level between the census subdivision and the census division. Source: Statistics Canada, 2006. |
Census divisions | 97 | Groups of neighboring municipalities joined together for the purposes of regional planning and managing common services (such as police or ambulance services). Source: Statistics Canada, 2006. |
Health services
| ||
CLSC | 155 | Local community service center (CLSC) districts, which are the smallest health-related geographical division in Quebec. CLSC has the mission to provide local front-line health and social services to their population. Source: Quebec’s ministry of health and social services, 2004. |
Natural
| ||
Watershed | 71 | Drainage area boundaries at the sub-sub-basin level based on classic drainage basins having certain minimum volume of mean annual discharge. Source: Government of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Canada Centre for Remote Sensing, The Atlas of Canada, 2007. Boundaries of watersheds were adjusted to fit the boundaries of the municipalities to avoid misalignment between population and covariate data (see [32] for more details). |
Custom
| ||
Smallest | 1,119 | Units equivalent to municipality or CLSC depending on which is the smaller. |
Agriculture | 319 | Aggregated adjacent units from the smallest framework based on similar covariate patterns for presence of poultry production, presence of ruminant agricultural production and use of pasture (see [32] for more details). |
Definition and acquisition of environmental and demographic variables
Risk factor | Definition |
---|---|
Agricultural characteristics
| |
Ruminant density per km2
| Density of ruminants (goats, sheep, dairy cattle or beef cattle) per km2 of populated area. |
Poultry density per km2
| Density of poultry (hens, broilers, or turkeys) per km2 of populated area. |
Slaughterhouse | Presence of ≥ 1 slaughterhouse handling poultry, cattle, and/or pigs under governmental inspection. |
Demographic variables
| |
Diploma (%) | Percentage of people >15 years with a grade, certificate, or diploma. |
Population density per km2
| Total number of people living in the area out of the total area in km2. |
Climate variables
| |
Precipitation (mm) | Average of daily precipitation for the study period. |
Temperature (°C ) | Average of the maximal and minimal daily temperature for the study period. |
Statistical modeling
Results
Smallest | Muni-cipality | Census consolidated subdvision | Agri-culture | CLSC | Census division | Water-shed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(n=1119) | (n=1063) | (n=903) | (n=319) | (n=155) | (n=97) | (n=71) | |
Ruminant density per km2
| |||||||
>20 | 204 | 204 | 179 | 64 | 10 | 9 | 1 |
≤20 | 736 | 721 | 661 | 184 | 97 | 85 | 59 |
None | 179 | 138 | 63 | 71 | 48 | 3 | 11 |
Poultry density per km2
| |||||||
>250 | 185 | 185 | 169 | 46 | 28 | 29 | 12 |
≤250 | 132 | 128 | 128 | 54 | 48 | 46 | 28 |
None | 802 | 750 | 606 | 219 | 79 | 22 | 31 |
Slaughterhousea
| |||||||
Large poultry | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
Others | 41 | 41 | 41 | 25 | 32 | 31 | 16 |
None | 1072 | 1016 | 856 | 289 | 118 | 61 | 50 |
Diploma (%) | |||||||
<50 | 209 | 208 | 192 | 37 | 5 | 3 | 14 |
50-75 | 724 | 701 | 615 | 209 | 96 | 74 | 51 |
>75 | 186 | 154 | 96 | 73 | 54 | 20 | 6 |
Population density per km2
| |||||||
≤6 | 207 | 206 | 193 | 20 | n/ab
| n/ab
| 7 |
6-400 | 683 | 681 | 589 | 191 | 47 | 46 | 32 |
≥400 | 229 | 176 | 121 | 108 | 108 | 51 | 32 |
Precipitation (mm) | |||||||
<2.9 | 138 | 136 | 121 | 40 | 13 | 10 | 13 |
2.9-3.1 | 775 | 729 | 607 | 214 | 117 | 69 | 50 |
>3.1 | 206 | 198 | 175 | 65 | 25 | 18 | 8 |
Temperature (°C) | |||||||
<3.1 | 191 | 189 | 177 | 55 | 24 | 20 | 32 |
3.1-6.9 | 755 | 739 | 639 | 220 | 79 | 66 | 36 |
>6.9 | 173 | 135 | 87 | 44 | 52 | 11 | 3 |
Geographical unit | Maximal % of variation | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Smallest | Municipality | Census consolidated subdvision | Agriculture | CLSC | Census division | Watershed | ||
Variable | (n=1119) | (n=1063) | (n=903) | (n=319) | (n=155) | (n=97) | (n=71) | |
Intercept | 34.32 (1.83)* | 35.98 (2.11)* | 35.12 (2.37)* | 39.54 (2.80)* | 36.38 (3.97)* | 23.35 (8.79)* | 16.33 (6.34)* | |
Ruminant density per km2 (ref.=none) | ||||||||
>20 | 8.72 (2.04)* | 7.17 (2.14)* | 10.76 (2.57)* | 4.47 (3.21) | 4.75 (5.20) | 17.37 (10.55) | 16.00 (13.10) | 50 |
≤20 | 5.44 (1.63)* | 3.25 (1.76) | 4.68 (2.21)* | 3.21 (2.40) | 2.96 (3.41) | 15.05 (8.98) | 8.88 (5.77) | 16 |
Poultry density per km2 (ref.=none) | ||||||||
>250 | 3.44 (1.52)* | 2.06 (1.53) | 3.84 (1.50)* | −1.32 (2.75) | 1.24 (3.82) | 4.17 (4.69) | 19.02 (7.55)* | 453 |
≤250 | −0.28 (1.62) | −1.05 (1.60) | 1.68 (1.48) | −4.62 (2.48) | −1.15 (3.28) | 1.36 (4.50) | 18.38 (4.59)* | |
Slaughterhouse (ref.=none) | ||||||||
Large poultry | 65.90 (6.75)* | 59.24 (6.47)* | 27.81 (5.91)* | 24.68 (7.33)* | 20.42 (5.91)* | 15.99 (6.84)* | 1.96 (7.14) | 312 |
Others | −1.18 (2.63) | 0.94 (2.53) | −1.40 (2.30) | −2.51 (3.33) | 1.72 (2.96) | 1.52 (3.41) | −5.74 (4.58) | |
Diploma in % (ref.=50-75) | ||||||||
<50 | −3.80 (1.42)* | −3.76 (1.41)* | −4.25 (1.34)* | −4.71 (3.09) | −18.16 (6.49)* | −19.68 (9.06)* | −6.37 (4.38) | 423 |
>75 | −0.20 (1.54) | −1.98 (1.64) | −2.04 (1.78) | −1.72 (2.50) | −4.58 (2.56) | −6.81 (4.13) | 5.24 (6.00) | |
Population density per km2 (ref.=6-400) | ||||||||
≤6 | −2.25 (1.47) | −2.48 (1.49) | −1.28 (1.38) | −6.78 (4.09) | n/ab
| n/a | 3.64 (5.66) | |
>400 | 3.58 (1.50)* | 4.59 (1.52)* | 0.36 (1.53) | 5.69 (2.16)* | 0.91 (2.76) | 2.93 (3.21) | 0.68 (3.75) | 59 |
Precipitation in mm (ref.=2.9-3.1) | ||||||||
<2.9 | −3.91 (1.86)* | −3.60 (2.40) | −4.56 (2.07)* | −9.59 (3.49)* | −14.09 (4.52)* | −15.96 (5.39)* | −7.92 (4.51) | 308 |
>3.1 | 1.33 (1.57) | 1.09 (1.99) | 1.19 (1.81) | 3.18 (2.94) | 8.89 (3.55)* | 5.80 (4.31) | 5.61 (5.35) | |
Temperature in °C (ref.=3.1-6.9) | ||||||||
<3.1 | 1.08 (1.65) | −3.45 (2.18) | −1.55 (1.88) | 1.67 (3.08) | 3.14 (3.39) | 7.03 (3.90) | 10.25 (4.05)* | |
>6.9 | −9.50 (1.92)* | −4.00 (2.57) | −5.32 (2.61)* | −10.42 (3.42)* | −6.47 (3.87) | −6.43 (5.06) | −17.30 (8.73)* | 225 |
Lambdac
| 0.58* | 0.8* | 0.68* | 0.45* | 0.59 | 0.56* | 0.31* | |
Model r2
| 0.21 | 0.27 | 0.26 | 0.24 | 0.48 | 0.37 | 0.52 |
Smallest | Munici-pality | Census consolidated subdivision | Agri-culture | CLSC | Census division | Water-shed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(n=1119) | (n=1063) | (n=903) | (n=319) | (n=155) | (n=97) | (n=71) | |
Cluster (scan test)
| |||||||
Principal cluster | |||||||
Meana inside | 79.97 | 74.57 | 77.99 | None | 10.37 | 12.35 | None |
Meana outside | −0.22 | −0.14 | −0.091 | −2.49 | −2.6 | ||
Number of units | 3 | 3 | 2 | 29 | 17 | ||
Area (km2) | 219 | 219 | 203 | 42993 | 40052 | ||
Locationc
| A | A | A | B | B | ||
P-value | <0.01 | <0.01 | 0.04 | <0.01 | 0.02 | ||
Clustering
| |||||||
Moran’s | |||||||
Neighbors (km)b
| 27 | 29 | 19 | 30 | 18 | 15 | 34 |
Estimate | −0.06 | −0.02 | −0.11 | −0.06 | −0.02 | 0.09 | 0.02 |
P-value | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.99 | 0.90 | 0.63 | 0.34 | 0.42 |