Pneumonia risk of people living close to goat and poultry farms – Taking GPS derived mobility patterns into account

Abstract

We previously observed an increased incidence of pneumonia in persons living near goat and poultry farms, using animal presence around the home to define exposure. However, it is unclear to what extent individual mobility and time spent outdoors close to home contributes to this increased risk. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to investigate the role of mobility patterns and time spent outdoors in the vicinity of goat or poultry farms in relation to pneumonia risk. In a rural Dutch cohort, 941 members logged their mobility using GPS trackers for 7 days. Pneumonia was diagnosed in 83 subjects (participants reported that pneumonia had been diagnosed by a medical doctor, or recorded in EMR from general practitioners, 2011–2014). We used logistic regression to evaluate pneumonia-risk by presence of goat farms within 500 and 1000 m around the home and around GPS-tracks (only non-motorised mobility), also we evaluated whether more time spent outdoors increased pneumonia-risks. We observed a clearly increased risk of pneumonia among people living in close proximity to goat farms, ORs increased with closer distances of homes to farms (500 m: 6.2 (95% CI 2.2–16.5) 1000 m: 2.5 (1.4–4.3)) The risk increased for individuals who spent more time outdoors close to home, but only if homes were close to goat farms (within 500 m and often outdoors: 12.7 (3.6–45.4) less often: 2.0 (0.3–9.2), no goat farms and often outdoors: 1.0 (0.6–1.6)). For poultry we found no increased risks. Pneumonia-risks increased when people lived near goat farms, especially when they spent more time outdoors, mobility does not seem to add to these risks.