Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with reported tick-borne viruses

Background: Public health resources are often allocated based on reported disease cases. However, for under-recognized infectious diseases such as tick-borne viruses, risk assessments should also account for ecological and socioeconomic factors that influence disease case reporting. This study identifies country-level predictors of tick-borne virus reporting and evaluates whether wealthier nations are more likely to report resource-intensive cases.
Methods: We applied boosted regression trees, a robust machine learning algorithm, to a comprehensive global database of tick-borne viruses and 24 environmental and socioeconomic variables.
Results: Countries with lower income inequality and greater expertise in veterinary, agricultural, or forestry sectors are more likely to report tick-borne virus cases. Wealthier nations with stronger institutional and professional capacity exhibit higher reporting rates, whereas countries affected by conflict or limited health infrastructure show underrep..., , # Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with reported tick-borne viruses

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.1g1jwsv9w](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1g1jwsv9w)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: 1_DataCleaning_TraitMatrix_v2.Rmd

**Description:** Script for data processing to create global trait matrix. The final file output (global_trait_matrix_20251031.csv) will be merged with ZOVER outcome data. This data cleaning script is only helpful for those who want to see what steps I used to go from raw to clean covariates. Because underlying data are not CC0 compatible, we have removed the raw data but direct users to Data Availability below or **Supplementary table 5** to find the raw data to plug into the data cleaning script. 

#### File: 2_DataCleaning_ZOVER_v2.Rmd

**Description:** Script for data processing to create tick-virus outcomes. The final file output (zover_toprecognized_complete_pubmed_20240921.csv) will be used as the mode...,