Diurnal temperature range and childhood asthma in Hefei, China: Does temperature modify the association?

The present study aimed to understand the effect of diurnal temperature range (DTR) on childhood asthma in Hefei, China, and to explore the effect of temperature on the DTR-asthma association.

Daily data on hospital admissions for childhood asthma, air pollutants, and weather variables in Hefei, China, from 1st January 2014 to 31st December 2015, were collected. A generalized additive model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was used to quantify the effects of DTR on the total, age- and gender-specific hospital admissions for childhood asthma. A non-parametric bivariate response surface model, and a generalized additive model combined with a stratified parametric model were used to explore the interaction between DTR and temperature.

We observed that high DTR was associated with an increase in hospital admissions for childhood asthma. When DTR increased from 6.7 °C to 16.8 °C (99% percentile), hospital admissions for childhood asthma increased by 13% (relative risk: 1.13, 95% confidence interval: 1.07, 1.12). The analysis stratified, by mean temperature level, suggested that when DTR increased by 1 °C at low temperatures, asthma hospitalizations in total children, girls, boys and school-age children increased by 5.0% (95% CI: 2.6%, 7.5%), 3.7% (95% CI: 0.4%, 5.7%), 2.9% (95% CI: 0.8%, 4.4%) and 5.0% (95% CI: 2.6%, 7.5%), respectively.

This study suggests that the impact of high DTR should be considered among public health advice for children with existing asthma. Those days with high DTR and low mean temperature need extra attention.