Recreational exposure to surface waters during periods of increased pathogen concentration may lead to a significantly higher risk of illness. However, estimates of elementary exposure factors necessary to evaluate health risk (i.e., usage distributions and exposure durations) are not available for many non-swimming water-related activities. No prior studies have assessed non-swimming water exposure with respect to factors leading to impaired water quality from increased pathogen concentration, such as weather condition (rain events produce increased runoff and sewer overflows) and type of day (heavy recreational periods). We measured usage patterns and evaluated the effect of weather and type of day at eight water sites located within Philadelphia, by using a novel "time lapse photography" technology during three peak recreational seasons (May-September) 2008-2010. Camera observations validated with simultaneous in-person surveys exhibited a strong correlation (R(2)=0.81 to 0.96) between the two survey techniques, indicating that the application of remote photography in collecting human exposure data was appropriate. Recreational activities usage varied more on a temporal basis than due to inclement weather. Only 14% (6 out of 44) of the site-specific activity combinations showed dry weather preference, whereas 41.5% (17 out of 41) of the combinations indicated greater usage on weekends as compared with weekday. In general, the log normal distribution described the playing and wading duration distribution, while the gamma distribution was the best fit for fishing durations. Remote photography provided unbiased, real-time human exposure data and was less personnel intensive compared with traditional survey methods. However, there are potential limitations associated with remote surveillance data related to its limited view. This is the first study to report that time lapse cameras can be successfully applied to assess water-based human recreational patterns and can provide precise exposure statistics for non-swimming recreational exposures.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 7. 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 01 January 2016.
All research outputs
#6,747,650
of 32,332,113 outputs
Outputs from Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
#707
of 1,577 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#39,463
of 195,094 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology
#8
of 10 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 32,332,113 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 78th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,577 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 32.2. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 54% 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 195,094 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 79% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 10 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than 2 of them.
