BACKGROUND Despite the fact that urinary tract infection (UTI) is a very frequent disease, little is known about its seasonality in the community. METHODS AND FINDINGS To estimate seasonality of UTI using multiple time series constructed with available proxies of UTI. Eight time series based on two databases were used: sales of urinary antibacterial medications reported by a panel of pharmacy...

Significant quantities of antibiotics are used in all parts of the globe to treat diseases with bacterial origins. After ingestion, antibiotics are excreted by the patient and transmitted in due course to the aquatic environment. This study examined temporal fluctuations (monthly time scale) in antibiotic sources (ambulatory sales and data from a hospital dispensary) for Lausanne, Switzerland. ...

BACKGROUND While seasonality of birth outcomes has been documented in a variety of settings, data from rural South Asia are lacking. We report a descriptive study of the seasonality of prematurity, low birth weight, small for gestational age, neonatal deaths, and stillbirths in the plains of Nepal. METHODS Using data collected prospectively during a randomized controlled trial of neonatal ski...

Psychiatrists, epidemiologists, and sociologists have debated the existence of an association between weather conditions and suicide seasonality since the preliminary statistical investigations in the 19th century. Provided that the effect of weather conditions on suicide operates via a dose-response-like mechanism, time-series (Box-Jenkins) analysis permits an indirect test of the hypothesis t...

The purpose of this study was to assess how seasonality is associated with some of the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the general Finnish population. The global seasonality score (GSS) was used to measure the magnitude of seasonality in 4689 participants, in addition to which they reported the extent to which the seasonal variations in mood and behavior were experienced as a pr...

We propose a new seasonal adjustment method based on the regularized singular value decomposition (RSVD) of the matrix obtained by reshaping the seasonal time series data. The method is flexible enough to capture two kinds of seasonality: the fixed seasonality that does not change over time and the time-varying seasonality that varies from one season to another. RSVD represents the time-varying...

Rotavirus infection is the leading cause of severe gastroenteritis among infants and young children worldwide. Before the introduction of rotavirus vaccine in the United States in 2006, rotavirus infection caused significant morbidity among U.S. children, with an estimated 55,000-70,000 hospitalizations and 410,000 clinic visits annually. The disease showed a characteristic winter-spring season...

BACKGROUND Edwards's method is a widely used approach for fitting a sine curve to a time-series of monthly frequencies. From this fitted curve, estimates of the seasonal intensity of occurrence (i.e., peak-to-low ratio of the fitted curve) can be generated. METHODS We discuss various approaches to the estimation of seasonal intensity assuming Edwards's periodic model, including maximum likeli...

conclusions due to seasonal variations in fruit and vegetable dietary intakes, the interventional and case-control studies should consider seasonality. educational and price controlling programs may control such observed seasonality in the intake of fruit and vegetables. results the highest consumption of vegetables was seen in summer (289 ± 3.4 g/day) while the lowest was in winter (224 ± 3.2 ...

Among birds, northern temperate species generally have larger clutches, shorter development periods and lower adult survival than similarly-sized southern and tropical species. Even though this global pattern is well accepted, the driving mechanism is still not fully understood. The main theories are founded on the differing environmental seasonality of these zones (higher seasonality in the No...