Citation

Wiznia DH, Christos PJ, LaBonte AM. J. Environ. Health 2013; 75(8): 32-39.

Affiliation

Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06510, USA. daniel.wiznia@yale.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, National Environmental Health Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

23621054

Abstract

The study described in this article examined the relationship between the incidence rate of deer vehicle accidents (DVAs), a proxy for measuring the interaction between populations of humans and deer, and human Lyme disease incidence rate. The authors also examined the relationship between deer population density and human Lyme incidence rate. They analyzed data from Connecticut's Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Public Health from 1999 through 2008 by deer management zone (DMZ) and town. For DVA incidence rate versus Lyme incidence rate for both DMZs and towns, most of the correlation coefficients computed yearly were moderate to strong and all of the p-values were significant. A weak correlation was observed between deer population density and Lyme disease incidence rate by DMZ. The authors propose DVAs as a proxy for measuring the interaction between coexisting populations of humans and deer. The authors' study suggests that additional investigations of DVAs and their relationship to Lyme disease to further assess the utility of public health interventions are warranted.

Language: en