| Introduction. Bed bug has been historically known as a pest cohabiting with human. More recently, a significant number of studies have pointed toward the resurgence of bed bugs. Many of these studies have identified several determinants responsible for the resurgence of bed bugs around the globe. The resurgence of this prehistoric pest has an ecological association, which has been established by the researchers who went on pointing out to a number of distant and intermediate sociodemographic factors responsible for the concurrent issues.;Aim. This study aims to examine the relationship among sociodemographic features and bed bug complaints as a public health concern, in order to identify the need as-well-as to increase community collaboration and guidance from Toronto Public Health (TPH) in dealing with bed bug issues.;Study Design. The Social Determinants of Health (SDH) approach and the Descriptive Correlation Research (DCR) framework were used for this retrospective descriptive study with ecological associations. The particular approach and framework allowed predicting and explaining those possible relationships between the selected sociodemographic features (i.e. independent variables) and the number of bed bug complaints in 2009 and 2010 by ward-level (i.e. dependent variables) in the City of Toronto.;Methods. Various analyses including bivariate correlation, and univariate and multivariate linear regressions were conducted on the secondary data from Toronto's Ward Profiles and Toronto Healthy Environments' Information System (THEIS), using SPSS software.;Results. Independent variables like Apartment Buildings with <5 Storeys (rho=0.555, p=0.006/rho=0.571, p=0.002), Rental Dwellings (rho=0.590, p<0.001/rho=0.623, p<0.001), Multi-family Households (rho=-0.405, p=0.002/rho=-0.421, p=0.002), and Work (r=0.538, p<0.001/r=0.600, p<0.001) and Non-Work (r=0.652, p<0.001/r=0.648, p<0.001) Trips by Transit appeared to have a relationship with the number of bed bug complaints received in 2009-2010. These variables were responsible for 16-43% of variation in the number of complaints.;Conclusion and Recommendations. This study was able to demonstrate the statistical correlation between some of the sociodemographic features and Toronto's varying exposure of bed bug infestations as reflected in the complaints received by TPH. The results of this particular study are considered to be helpful in increasing community partnership and leadership from TPH in dealing with various bed bug-related issues.;Keywords: Bed bugs, Bed bug Infestations, Sociodemographic Features, Relationship, Bed bug Complaints, City of Toronto, Toronto Public Health. |
