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Cyanobacteria blooms and non-alcoholic liver disease: evidence from a county level ecological study in the United States

Overview of attention for article published in Environmental Health, May 2015
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (98th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (93rd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
8 news outlets
blogs
3 blogs
twitter
19 X users
wikipedia
2 Wikipedia pages

Citations

dimensions_citation
89 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
140 Mendeley
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Title
Cyanobacteria blooms and non-alcoholic liver disease: evidence from a county level ecological study in the United States
Published in
Environmental Health, May 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12940-015-0026-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Feng Zhang, Jiyoung Lee, Song Liang, CK Shum

Abstract

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms present a global threat to human health. There is evidence suggesting that cyanobacterial toxins can cause liver damage and cancer. However, because there is little epidemiologic research on the effects of these toxins in humans, the excess risk of liver disease remains uncertain. The purpose of this study is to estimate the spatial distribution of cyanobacterial blooms in the United States and to conduct a Bayesian statistical analysis to test the hypothesis that contamination from cyanobacterial blooms is a potential risk factor for non-alcoholic liver disease. An ecological study design was employed, in which county-specific gender and age standardized mortality rates (SMR) of non-alcoholic liver disease in the United States were computed between 1999 and 2010. Bloom coverage maps were produced based on estimated phycocyanin levels from MERIS (Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) water color imageries from 08/01/2005 to 09/30/2005. A scan statistical tool was used to identify significant clusters of death from non-alcoholic liver disease. A map of local indicator of spatial association (LISA) clusters and a Bayesian spatial regression model were used to analyze the relationship between cyanobacterial bloom coverage and death from non-alcoholic liver disease. Cyanobacterial blooms were found to be widely spread in the United States, including coastal areas; 62% of the counties (1949 out of 3109) showed signs of cyanobacterial blooms measured with MERIS. Significant clusters of deaths attributable to non-alcoholic liver disease were identified in the coastal areas impacted by cyanobacterial blooms. Bayesian regression analysis showed that bloom coverage was significantly related to the risk of non-alcoholic liver disease death. The risk from non-alcoholic liver disease increased by 0.3% (95% CI, 0.1% to 0.5%) with each 1% increase in bloom coverage in the affected county after adjusting for age, gender, educational level, and race. At the population level, there is a statistically significant association between cyanobacterial blooms and non-alcoholic liver disease in the contiguous United States. Remote sensing-based water monitoring provides a useful tool for assessing health hazards, but additional studies are needed to establish a specific association between cyanobacterial blooms and liver disease.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 19 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 140 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
France 1 <1%
Unknown 139 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 27 19%
Researcher 16 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 15 11%
Student > Doctoral Student 8 6%
Other 7 5%
Other 19 14%
Unknown 48 34%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 20 14%
Environmental Science 20 14%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 7 5%
Chemistry 7 5%
Medicine and Dentistry 6 4%
Other 25 18%
Unknown 55 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 104. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 September 2023.
All research outputs
#405,773
of 25,463,724 outputs
Outputs from Environmental Health
#117
of 1,606 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#4,389
of 279,363 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Environmental Health
#3
of 30 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,463,724 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,606 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 37.9. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 279,363 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 30 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.