State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Mar 4;16(5):784. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16050784.
Increasingly stricter and wider official efforts have been made by multilevel Chinese governments for seeking the improvements of the environment and public health status. However, the contributions of these efforts to environmental changes and spatiotemporal variations in some environmental diseases have been seldom explored and evaluated. Gastric cancer mortality (GCM) data in two periods (I: 2004⁻2006 and II: 2012⁻2015) was collected for the analysis of its spatiotemporal variations on the grid scale across S County in Central China. Some environmental and socioeconomic factors, including river, farmlands, topographic condition, population density, and gross domestic products (GDP) were obtained for the exploration of their changes and their relationships with GCM's spatiotemporal variations through a powerful tool (GeoDetector, GD). During 2004⁻2015, S County achieved environmental improvement and socioeconomic development, as well as a clear decline of the age-standardized mortality rate of gastric cancer from 35.66/10⁵ to 23.44/10⁵. Moreover, the GCM spatial patterns changed on the grid scale, which was spatially associated with the selected influencing factors. Due to the improvement of rivers' water quality, the distance from rivers posed relatively larger but reversed impacts on the gridded GCM. In addition, higher population density and higher economic level (GDP) acted as important protective factors, whereas the percentage of farmlands tended to have adverse effects on the gridded GCM in period II. It can be concluded that the decline of GCM in S County was spatiotemporally associated with increasingly strengthened environmental managements and socioeconomic developments over the past decade. Additionally, we suggest that more attentions should be paid to the potential pollution caused by excessive pesticides and fertilizers on the farmlands in S County. This study provided a useful clue for local authorities adopting more targeted measures to improve environment and public health in the regions similar to S County.
中国各级政府为改善环境和公众健康状况做出了越来越严格和广泛的努力。然而，这些努力对环境变化以及某些环境疾病的时空变化的贡献却很少被探索和评估。本研究收集了中国中部 S 县两个时期（I：2004-2006 年；II：2012-2015 年）的胃癌死亡率（GCM）数据，以分析其在网格尺度上的时空变化。获取了一些环境和社会经济因素，包括河流、农田、地形条件、人口密度和国内生产总值（GDP），以通过强大的工具（地理探测器，GD）探索它们的变化及其与 GCM 时空变化的关系。2004-2015 年期间，S 县实现了环境改善和社会经济发展，胃癌标准化死亡率从 35.66/10⁵下降到 23.44/10⁵。此外，GCM 的空间模式在网格尺度上发生了变化，与所选影响因素具有空间相关性。由于河流水质的改善，河流的距离对网格化 GCM 的影响相对较大，但方向相反。此外，较高的人口密度和较高的经济水平（GDP）是重要的保护因素，而农田比例在 II 期对网格化 GCM 则表现出不利影响。可以得出结论，在过去十年中，S 县 GCM 的下降与环境管理和社会经济发展的加强具有时空相关性。此外，我们建议应更加关注 S 县农田过度使用农药和化肥可能造成的潜在污染。本研究为地方当局在类似 S 县的地区采取更有针对性的措施改善环境和公众健康提供了有益线索。
