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Esophageal Heat Transfer for Patient Temperature Control and Targeted Temperature Management
Published on: November 21, 2017
Temperature in summer and children's hospitalizations in two Mediterranean cities
Carmen Iñiguez1, Patrizia Schifano2, Federica Asta2
1FISABIO - Universitat Jaume I - Universitat de València Epidemiology and Environmental Health Joint Research Unit, Spain; Spanish Consortium for Research on Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Spain.
Insights
Children
Area of Science:
- Environmental Health
- Pediatric Health
- Climate Change Impact
Background:
- Children are susceptible to heat-related illnesses.
- Limited evidence exists on pediatric morbidity due to high ambient temperatures.
- This study addresses the scarcity of data on heat's impact on children's health.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between summer temperatures and pediatric hospitalizations.
- To analyze heat-related morbidity in children under 15.
- To compare findings in Rome and Valencia from 2001-2010.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Quasi-Poisson generalized additive and distributed lag non-linear models.
- Examined daily mean temperature and hospital admissions for natural, respiratory, and gastrointestinal diseases.
- Assessed hospitalization changes at various temperature percentiles and time lags (0-21 days).
Main Results:
- Increased temperatures significantly correlated with higher pediatric hospitalizations for all natural diseases at short term.
- Respiratory admissions in Rome and gastrointestinal admissions in both cities showed heat-related increases.
- Delayed effects were observed for some outcomes and locations, indicating complex exposure-response patterns.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric hospitalizations in Rome and Valencia increased with rising temperatures.
- The timing of heat-related hospital admissions varied by disease outcome.
- Findings highlight the vulnerability of children to heat and the need for public health interventions.
Background And Objective:
Children are potentially vulnerable to hot ambient temperature. However, the evidence on heat-related children's morbidity is still scarce. Our aim was to examine the association between temperatures in summer (May to September) and children's hospitalizations in two Mediterranean cities, Rome and Valencia, during the period 2001-2010.
Methods:
Quasi-Poisson generalised additive models and distributed lag non-linear models were combined to study the relationship between daily mean temperature and hospital admissions for all natural, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases in children under 15 years of age. Associations were summarised as the percentage of change (Ch%) in admissions at 50th, 75th, 90th, 95th and 98th percentiles of temperature in summer compared to 1.) the 50th percentile in the whole year (50th(y)) and 2.) the preceding percentile in the previous series. Cumulated risks were obtained for groups of lags showing a similar pattern: 0-1, 2-7, 8-14 and 15-21 days.
Results:
Almost whatever increase of temperature from 50th(y) was significantly associated with an increase of paediatric hospitalizations by all natural diseases at short term (lag 0-1), while small increases at high temperatures only had a delayed effect on this outcome. The same pattern was observed in Rome for respiratory admissions, while in Valencia only a delayed association (days 8-14) was observed. The increase of temperature from 50th to 75th percentiles was associated at short time to an increase of gastrointestinal admissions in both cities.
Conclusion:
Children's hospitalizations rose with heat in Rome and Valencia. Patterns of delays and critical windows of exposure mainly varied according the outcome considered.
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