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Victims of our climate
E Masterson1, D Borton, T O'Brien
1Children's Hospital, Dublin, Republic of Ireland.
Insights
Pediatric fracture admissions correlate strongly with sunshine hours, indicating weather influences child bone injuries. This finding aids in planning pediatric orthopedic unit resources.
Area of Science:
- Orthopedic Surgery
- Pediatric Traumatology
- Environmental Health
Background:
- Understanding seasonal variations in pediatric orthopedic trauma is crucial for resource allocation.
- Previous studies have suggested environmental factors may influence injury incidence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between weather patterns and the incidence of pediatric orthopedic trauma.
- To identify specific weather variables correlating with fracture admissions in children.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of pediatric fracture admissions over a 3-year period.
- Correlation of admission data with local meteorological records (sunshine hours, rainfall).
Main Results:
- A strong positive correlation was found between monthly fracture admissions and mean monthly sunshine hours (r=0.91).
- A weak negative correlation was observed with mean monthly rainfall (r=-0.24).
- Radius fractures were most common (48.7%) and showed the highest correlation with sunshine.
Conclusions:
- Weather, particularly sunshine duration, significantly impacts pediatric orthopedic trauma volume.
- Findings have implications for optimizing bed management and staffing in pediatric orthopedic units.
- The summer peak in fractures is independent of school holidays.
Abstract:
In order to test the hypothesis that the volume of paediatric orthopaedic trauma is related to the weather, we analysed all children with fractures admitted to our unit over a 3-year period and correlated this information with local meteorological data. The average number of children admitted per month with fractures showed a strong positive correlation with mean monthly sunshine hours (Pearson correlation coefficient 0.91) and a weak negative correlation with mean monthly rainfall (-0.24). The summer peak in the incidence of fractures persisted when the effect of school holidays was eliminated. Fractures involving the radius accounted for 48.7 per cent of all fracture admissions and correlation with sunshine hours was highest in this group. Almost two-thirds of all fracture admissions were male and these had a slightly higher mean age (8.2 years) than females (7.6 years). This data has implications for bed management and staffing levels in a paediatric orthopaedic unit.