Abstract
This study considers the relationship between the risk of hospital admission due to respiratory diseases, the daily weather, and the air pollution conditions between 2000 and 2006. A synoptic climatological approach is used to investigate the links between weather types and all hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases in Castilla-La Mancha (CLM), Spain. The main circulation weather types (CWTs) were determined for winter and spring, the seasons with the highest percentage of hospital admissions, and the frequency distribution of these types was also analyzed. The study includes a summary of the main characteristics of the hospital admission series and their distribution over the study period of seven years, as well as the frequency distributions of the admissions classified by gender and age, for each season, month and day of the week. In addition, an admission index was used to compare CWTs and hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases. The results show distinctly different responses of daily respiratory disease admission rates (RD) to the eight CWTs identified in winter and in spring. In winter, three CWTs (southwesterly (SW), anticyclonic (A) and hybrid anticyclonic southwesterly (HASW)) present values 1.5 times above the average admission rates. In contrast, there are no significant differences in spring. Finally, the results of Principal Component Analysis applied to the daily series of meteorological parameters, atmospheric pollutants and morbidity data revealed that in winter the decrease in RD is related to increases in temperature and pressure. These results represent an important step in identifying reliable connections between weather-air pollutants and human health.
Highlights
Respiratory diseases are one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in most countries
This paper has presented the results obtained by analyzing the association between daily weather types and hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases in Castilla-La Mancha along seven years (2000–2006)
The male/female ratio is 1.7 for men and the age > 65/age < 65 ratio is 1.3. - The results showed a clear link between morbidity and the values of the meteorological parameters
Summary
Respiratory diseases are one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in most countries. An increasing number of studies focus on the role of meteorological parameters and other ambient factors in this type of pathologies (Macfarlane et al, 2000; FernandezRaga et al, 2010). The effect of aerosol and gaseous pollutants on human health is an important topic of research nowadays (Eleftheriadis and Emmanouil, 2011; Calvo et al, 2013). Air pollution causes the premature death of over 16,000 people per year in Spain. About 35% of the Spanish population, i.e., 16 million people, breathe polluted air, according to the 43rd Conference of the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thorax Surgery 2010 (www.troposfera.org). Atmospheric pollution comprises a wide range of
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
