TY - JOUR AU - Zhao, Xixi AU - Li, Meijia AU - Haihambo, Naem AU - Jin, Jianhua AU - Zeng, Yimeng AU - Qiu, Jinyi AU - Guo, Mingrou AU - Zhu, Yuyao AU - Li, Zhirui AU - Liu, Jiaxin AU - Teng, Jiayi AU - Li, Sixiao AU - Zhao, Ya-nan AU - Cao, Yanxiang AU - Wang, Xuemei AU - Li, Yaqiong AU - Gao, Michel AU - Feng, Xiaoyang AU - Han, Chuanliang PY - 2022 DA - 2022/6/23 TI - Changes in Temporal Properties of Notifiable Infectious Disease Epidemics in China During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Population-Based Surveillance Study JO - JMIR Public Health Surveill SP - e35343 VL - 8 IS - 6 KW - class B infectious disease KW - COVID-19 KW - event-related trough KW - infection selectivity KW - oscillation KW - public health interventions KW - pandemic KW - surveillance KW - health policy KW - epidemiology KW - prevention policy KW - public health KW - risk prevention AB - Background: COVID-19 was first reported in 2019, and the Chinese government immediately carried out stringent and effective control measures in response to the epidemic. Objective: Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) may have impacted incidences of other infectious diseases as well. Potential explanations underlying this reduction, however, are not clear. Hence, in this study, we aim to study the influence of the COVID-19 prevention policies on other infectious diseases (mainly class B infectious diseases) in China. Methods: Time series data sets between 2017 and 2021 for 23 notifiable infectious diseases were extracted from public data sets from the National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China. Several indices (peak and trough amplitudes, infection selectivity, preferred time to outbreak, oscillatory strength) of each infectious disease were calculated before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. Results: We found that the prevention and control policies for COVID-19 had a strong, significant reduction effect on outbreaks of other infectious diseases. A clear event-related trough (ERT) was observed after the outbreak of COVID-19 under the strict control policies, and its decreasing amplitude is related to the infection selectivity and preferred outbreak time of the disease before COVID-19. We also calculated the oscillatory strength before and after the COVID-19 outbreak and found that it was significantly stronger before the COVID-19 outbreak and does not correlate with the trough amplitude. Conclusions: Our results directly demonstrate that prevention policies for COVID-19 have immediate additional benefits for controlling most class B infectious diseases, and several factors (infection selectivity, preferred outbreak time) may have contributed to the reduction in outbreaks. This study may guide the implementation of nonpharmaceutical interventions to control a wider range of infectious diseases. SN - 2369-2960 UR - https://publichealth.jmir.org/2022/6/e35343 UR - https://doi.org/10.2196/35343 UR - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35649394 DO - 10.2196/35343 ID - info:doi/10.2196/35343 ER -