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Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study

Bacteriological water quality criteria have been recommended to ensure bathers’ health. However, this risk-assessment approach is based mainly on routine measurements of fecal pollution indicator bacteria in seawater, and may not be adequate to protect bathers effectively. The aim of this study was...

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Autores principales: Papastergiou, Panagiotis, Mouchtouri, Varvara, Pinaka, Ourania, Katsiaflaka, Anna, Rachiotis, George, Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3386571/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22754456
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9051548
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author Papastergiou, Panagiotis
Mouchtouri, Varvara
Pinaka, Ourania
Katsiaflaka, Anna
Rachiotis, George
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
author_facet Papastergiou, Panagiotis
Mouchtouri, Varvara
Pinaka, Ourania
Katsiaflaka, Anna
Rachiotis, George
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
author_sort Papastergiou, Panagiotis
collection PubMed
description Bacteriological water quality criteria have been recommended to ensure bathers’ health. However, this risk-assessment approach is based mainly on routine measurements of fecal pollution indicator bacteria in seawater, and may not be adequate to protect bathers effectively. The aim of this study was to assess the risks of symptoms related to infectious diseases among bathers after exposure to seawater which was of excellent quality according to EU guidelines. This study is a cohort study recruiting bathers and non-bathers. Water samples were collected for estimating bacterial indicators. Univariable and multivariable analysis was performed to compare the risks of developing symptoms/diseases between bathers and non-bathers. A total of 3805 bathers and 572 non-bathers were included in the study. Water analysis results demonstrated excellent quality of bathing water. Significantly increased risks of symptoms related to gastrointestinal infections (OR = 3.60, 95% CI 1.28–10.13), respiratory infections (OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.00–3.67), eye infections (OR = 2.43, 95% CI 1.27–4.63) and ear infections (OR = 17.21, 95% CI 2.42–122.34) were observed among bathers compared with non-bathers. Increased rates of medical consultation and medication use were also observed among bathers. There was evidence that bathers experienced increased morbidity compared with non-bathers though the bathing waters met bacteriological water quality criteria. These results suggest that risk assessments of recreational seawaters should not only focus on bacteriological water quality criteria.
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spelling pubmed-33865712012-06-29 Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study Papastergiou, Panagiotis Mouchtouri, Varvara Pinaka, Ourania Katsiaflaka, Anna Rachiotis, George Hadjichristodoulou, Christos Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Bacteriological water quality criteria have been recommended to ensure bathers’ health. However, this risk-assessment approach is based mainly on routine measurements of fecal pollution indicator bacteria in seawater, and may not be adequate to protect bathers effectively. The aim of this study was to assess the risks of symptoms related to infectious diseases among bathers after exposure to seawater which was of excellent quality according to EU guidelines. This study is a cohort study recruiting bathers and non-bathers. Water samples were collected for estimating bacterial indicators. Univariable and multivariable analysis was performed to compare the risks of developing symptoms/diseases between bathers and non-bathers. A total of 3805 bathers and 572 non-bathers were included in the study. Water analysis results demonstrated excellent quality of bathing water. Significantly increased risks of symptoms related to gastrointestinal infections (OR = 3.60, 95% CI 1.28–10.13), respiratory infections (OR = 1.92, 95% CI 1.00–3.67), eye infections (OR = 2.43, 95% CI 1.27–4.63) and ear infections (OR = 17.21, 95% CI 2.42–122.34) were observed among bathers compared with non-bathers. Increased rates of medical consultation and medication use were also observed among bathers. There was evidence that bathers experienced increased morbidity compared with non-bathers though the bathing waters met bacteriological water quality criteria. These results suggest that risk assessments of recreational seawaters should not only focus on bacteriological water quality criteria. MDPI 2012-04-25 2012-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3386571/ /pubmed/22754456 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9051548 Text en © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Papastergiou, Panagiotis
Mouchtouri, Varvara
Pinaka, Ourania
Katsiaflaka, Anna
Rachiotis, George
Hadjichristodoulou, Christos
Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study
title Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study
title_full Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study
title_fullStr Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study
title_full_unstemmed Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study
title_short Elevated Bathing-Associated Disease Risks Despite Certified Water Quality: A Cohort Study
title_sort elevated bathing-associated disease risks despite certified water quality: a cohort study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3386571/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22754456
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9051548
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