Factors associated with the recurrence of dengue fever in villages in Chiang Rai, Thailand

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the factors associated with DF occurrence in recurrence villages in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Design/methodology/approach A case-control study was conducted between June 2017 and December 2017. A validated questionnaire was used to detect the factors associated with recurrence of DF. χ2 and logistic regression were used to detect the associations between variables at α=0.05. Findings In total, 213 cases and 436 controls were recruited into the analysis. Cases were recruited from 20 DF recurring villages, while controls were recruited from 20 non-DF recurring villages in Chiang Rai province. At community level, three variables were associated with recurrence of DF; size of the village (p=0.007), number of villagers (p=0.009), tribe (p=0.043) and distance to a hospital (p=0.003). Three variables were associated with DF at personal and family levels in multivariate model: children whose parents worked as daily employees, and government officers and traders were more likely to have DF 1.56 (95%CI=1.22–2.48) and 4.31 (95%CI=4.66–9.38) times greater than of those whose parents’ worked as agriculturists, respectively; children aged less than one year were 2.89 (95%CI=2.17–4.33) times more likely to have DF than those aged=6 and children who were under standard growth and over standard growth were more likely to have DF than those standard growth 1.61 (95%CI=1.18–2.53) and 7.33 (95%CI=4.39–10.37) times, respectively. Originality/value This is the original research article which was conducted in detecting the factors associated with recurrence of DHF in Northern Thailand.