Integrating tick density and park visitor behaviors to assess the risk of tick exposure in urban parks on Staten Island, New York

<strong>Background</strong> Public green spaces are important for human health, but they may expose visitors to ticks and tick-borne pathogens. We sought to understand, for the first time, visitors’ exposure risk and drivers of tick-preventative behavior in three popular parks on Staten Island, New York City, NY, USA, by integrating tick hazard and park visitors’ behaviors, risk perceptions and knowledge. <strong>Methods</strong> We conducted tick sampling in three parks, across three site types (open spaces, the edge of open spaces and trails) and three within-park habitats (maintained grass, unmaintained herbaceous, and leaf litter) to estimate tick density during May-August 2019. Human behavior was assessed by observations of time spent and activity type in each site. We integrated the time spent in each location by park visitors and the tick density to estimate the probability of human-tick encounter. To assess visitors’ tick prevention behaviors, a knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) survey was administered. <strong>Results</strong> Three tick species (<em>Ixodes scapularis</em>, <em>Amblyomma americanum</em> and <em>Haemaphysalis longicornis) </em>were collected. For all species, the density of nymphs was greatest in unmaintained herbaceous habitats and trails, however, the fewest people entered these hazardous locations and parks. The KAP survey revealed that most respondents (N= 190) identified parks as the main location for tick exposure, but most believed they had minimal risk for tick encounter. Consequently, many visitors did not conduct tick checks. People were most likely to practice tick checks if they knew multiple prevention methods and perceived a high likelihood of tick encounter. <strong>Conclusions</strong> By integrating acarological indices with park visitor behaviors, we found a mismatch between areas with higher tick densities and areas more frequently used by park visitors. However, this exposure risk varied among demographic groups, the type of activities and parks, with a higher probability of human-tick encounters in trails compared to open spaces. Furthermore, we showed that people’s KAP did not change across parks even if parks represented different exposure risks. Our research is a first step towards identifying visitor risk, attitudes, and practices that could be targeted by optimized messaging strategies for tick bite prevention among park visitors.**背景** 城市公共绿地对人类健康具有重要价值，但同时也可能使访客暴露于蜱虫及蜱传病原体的威胁之下。本研究首次整合蜱虫危害状况、公园访客行为、风险认知与相关知识，旨在探明美国纽约州纽约市斯塔滕岛三座热门公园中，访客的蜱虫暴露风险及蜱虫预防行为的影响因素。 **方法** 本研究于2019年5月至8月期间，在三座公园的三类场地类型（开阔地带、开阔地带边缘与步道）以及三种园内生境（修剪草坪、未修剪草本植被区与落叶层）中开展蜱虫采样，以估算蜱虫密度。通过观察访客在各场地的停留时长与活动类型，对人类行为进行评估。我们结合公园访客在各区域的停留时长与蜱虫密度，估算人与蜱虫接触的概率。为评估访客的蜱虫预防行为，我们开展了知识、态度、行为（Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, KAP）问卷调查。 **结果** 本次研究共采集到3种蜱虫：肩突硬蜱（*Ixodes scapularis*）、美洲钝眼蜱（*Amblyomma americanum*）与长角血蜱（*Haemaphysalis longicornis*）。对于所有蜱虫物种而言，若虫密度在未修剪草本植被区与步道中最高，但进入这些高风险区域的访客数量最少。KAP调查结果显示，在190名受访者中，多数人认为公园是蜱虫暴露的主要场所，但大多数人认为自身遭遇蜱虫的风险极低。因此，许多访客并未开展蜱虫检查。当受访者了解多种预防方法且感知到较高的蜱虫接触风险时，他们更愿意进行蜱虫检查。 **结论** 本研究将蜱螨学监测指标与公园访客行为相结合，发现蜱虫密度较高的区域与访客高频使用的区域之间存在错配。不过，这种暴露风险在不同人口统计特征群体、活动类型以及公园之间存在差异，且步道中的人与蜱虫接触概率高于开阔地带。此外，即使不同公园的暴露风险存在差异，访客的KAP水平并未因公园不同而发生改变。本研究为识别访客的暴露风险、认知与行为模式迈出了第一步，未来可针对这些特征优化蜱虫叮咬预防的宣传策略，以面向公园访客开展相关教育。