Abstract
To investigate the risk factors associated with bedbug infestations among Hong Kong households, self-reported questionnaires in Chinese were distributed online between June 2019 and July 2020. The questionnaire collected data on participants’ sociodemographics, history of bedbug infestation, and housing situation. Among the 663 participants who completed the questionnaire, 422 (63.7%) have experienced bedbug infestations in the past year, they were concentrated around the Kowloon region. Weighted bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression were performed to identify the statistically significant (p value < 0.05) factors associated with bedbug infestations. Bivariate analysis shows a positive correlation between the number of reported dilapidated housing features and bedbug infestation. For multivariate analysis, those aged 45–64 (OR = 2.53, 95% CI 1.30–4.91), have primary education or below (OR = 9.43, 95% CI 3.12–28.44), and monthly household income ≤ HKD30,000 (OR = 1.69, 95% CI 1.15–2.5) were more likely to have bedbug infestation compared to their respective reference groups, i.e., ≥ 65, tertiary education, and > HKD30,000; housing risk factors identified are living in subdivided flats (OR = 16.53, 95% CI 1.01–269.72), crowded household (OR = 1.55, 95% CI 1.06–2.28), having second-hand furniture (OR = 2.97, 95% CI 1.16–7.58), housing cleanliness issues (OR = 2.66, 95% CI 1.13–6.25), and presence of bedbugs in neighbouring residential units (OR = 3.32, 95% CI 1.57–7.04) or on the streets (OR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.12–3.23). This study has identified lower income, lower education level, crowded household, living in subdivided flats, and certain dilapidated housing features to be risk factors of bedbug infestations; efforts and policies should prioritise vulnerable groups and focus on addressing the housing risk factors identified in this study.
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Data availability
Supplementary material 3 contains the deidentified dataset of participants’ responses used in data analysis for this research. In “Sheet 1”, the first row is the variable name and corresponds to the variables presented in the results section. The spaces in the variable names have been replaced with an underscore. Each column corresponds to a variable. Each subsequent row from the first represents a participant. Missing variables are entered as “999”. The column labelled “case_weight_age_sex” contains the case weightings by age and sex. “Sheet 2” shows the coding scheme for each variable.
Change history
26 October 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09905-1
Abbreviations
- CI:
-
Confidence interval
- CUHK:
-
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- HKD:
-
Hong Kong Dollar
- HKSAR:
-
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
- IBM:
-
International Business Machines Corporation
- OR:
-
Odds ratio
- Ref.:
-
Reference category
- SBREC:
-
Survey and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee
- SPSS 24:
-
Statistical Product and Service Solutions version 24
- USD:
-
United States Dollar
- US EPA:
-
United States Environmental Protection Agency
- VIF:
-
Variance Inflation Factors
- |r|:
-
Absolute value of the Pearson correlation coefficient
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Acknowledgements
This study is part of a larger project entitled “Providing low-income residents with safe, effective, affordable and sustainable solutions in tackling bed bug problems” conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Anti-Bedbug Research Action Group, composed of professors and students formed in January 2019. The authors extend their sincerest gratitude to the group of student volunteers from this group for their efforts in data collection.
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EHCF performed data collection, data analysis, and manuscript writing. HW conceptualized and coordinated the research. SWC, JHLH, HML, and SMC provided scientific knowledge. RYC and SYW provided public health knowledge about bedbugs and research design on data collection and data analysis. All authors read, edited, and approved the final manuscript.
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Written informed consent was obtained from all participants in digital form. After accessing the link to the online survey, participants were shown a statement of consent which explains the purpose of the study, type of questions to be asked, eligibility criteria, data security, participant rights, and risks involved. The questions to the online questionnaire were only shown after participants voluntarily select “Agree” then “next”.
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This research has been approved by the Survey and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee (SBREC), of CUHK [Reference No. SBRE-19–778].
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Fung, E.H.C., Wong, H., Chiu, S.W. et al. Risk factors associated with bedbug (Cimex spp.) infestations among Hong Kong households: a cross-sectional study. J Hous and the Built Environ 37, 1411–1429 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09894-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-021-09894-1