Association between diurnal temperature range and respiratory tract infections
Wen Zhen Ge1, Feng Xu, Zhuo Hui Zhao
1School of Public Health, Key Lab of Public Health Safety of the Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, China.
Objective:
This study aimed to assess the association between emergency-room visits for respiratory tract infection (RTI) with diurnal temperature range (DTR), a weather parameter closely associated with urbanization and global climate change.
Methods:
We conducted a semiparametric time-series analysis to estimate the percentage increase in emergency-room visits for RTI associated with changes in DTR after adjustment for daily weather conditions (temperature and relative humidity) and outdoor air pollution.
Results:
DTR was significantly associated with daily emergency-room visits for RTI. An increase of 1 °C in the current-day (L0) and in the 2-day moving average (L01) DTR corresponded to a 0.94% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.34%-1.55%] and 2.08% (95% CI, 1.24%-2.93%) increase in emergency-room visits for RTI, respectively.
Conclusion:
DTR was associated with increased risk of RTI. More studies are needed to understand the impact of DTR on respiratory health.
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