Increased risk of pneumonia amongst residents living near goat farms in different livestock-dense regions in the Netherlands

Background: Previous studies, performed between 2009-2019, in the Netherlands observed an until now still unexplained increased risk for pneumonia among residents living close to goat farms. Since data were collected in the provinces Noord-Brabant and Limburg (NB-L), an area with relatively high air pollution levels and proximity to large industrial areas in Europe, the question remains whether the results are generalizable to other regions. In this study, a different region, covering the provinces Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel (UGO) with a similar density of goat farms, was included to... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Lotterman, Aniek
Baliatsas, Christos
de Rooij, Myrna M.T.
Huss, Anke
Jacobs, José
Dückers, Michel
Boender, Gert Jan
McCarthy, Catherine
Heederik, Dick
Hagenaars, Thomas J.
Yzermans, C.J.
Smit, Lidwien A.M.
Dokumenttyp: article/Letter to editor
Erscheinungsdatum: 2023
Schlagwörter: Life Science
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-27223958
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/increased-risk-of-pneumonia-amongst-residents-living-near-goat-fa

Background: Previous studies, performed between 2009-2019, in the Netherlands observed an until now still unexplained increased risk for pneumonia among residents living close to goat farms. Since data were collected in the provinces Noord-Brabant and Limburg (NB-L), an area with relatively high air pollution levels and proximity to large industrial areas in Europe, the question remains whether the results are generalizable to other regions. In this study, a different region, covering the provinces Utrecht, Gelderland, and Overijssel (UGO) with a similar density of goat farms, was included to assess whether the association between goat farm proximity and pneumonia is consistently observed across the Netherlands.Methods: Data for this study were derived from the Electronic Health Records (EHR) of 21 rural general practices (GPs) in UGO, for 2014-2017. Multi-level analyses were used to compare annual pneumonia prevalence between UGO and data derived from rural reference practices ('control area'). Random-effects meta-analysis (per GP practice) and kernel analyses were performed to study associations of pneumonia with the distance between goat farms and patients' home addresses.Results: GP diagnoses of pneumonia occurred 40% more often in UGO compared to the control area. Meta-analysis showed an association at a distance of less than 500m (~70% more pneumonia compared to >500m) and 1000m (~20% more pneumonia compared to >1000m). The kernel-analysis for three of the four individual years showed an increased risk up to a distance of one or two kilometers (2-36% more pneumonia; 10-50 avoidable cases per 100,000 inhabitants per year).Conclusions: The positive association between living in the proximity of goat farms and pneumonia in UGO is similar to the previously found association in NB-L. Therefore, we concluded that the observed associations are relevant for regions with goat farms in the entire country.