Association between Weather Conditions and the number of Patients at the Emergency Room in an Argentine Hospital

RUSTICUCCI MATILDE; BETTOLLI MARIA LAURA; HARRIS M DE LOS ANGELES

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOMETEOROLOGY

Springer

Año: 2002 vol. 46 p. 42 - 51

0020-7128

The aim of this paper is to study the relationships between hospital emergencies and weather conditions by analysing summer and winter cases of patients requiring attention at the emergency room of a hospital in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Hospital data has been sorted into seven different diagnostic groups as follows: 1) Respiratory, Cardiovascular and Chest-Pain Complaints; 2) Digestive, Genitourinary and Abdominal Complaints; 3) Neurological and Psychopathological Disorders; 4) Infections; 5) Contusion and Crushing; Bone and Muscle Complaints; 6) Skin and Allergies and 7) Miscellaneous Complaints. In general, there is an increase of 16.7% in winter, while for group 2 and group 6, there are more patients in summer, 54% and 75%, respectively. In summer, the total number of patients for group 6 shows a significant positive correlation with temperature and dew point temperature, and a negative correlation with the sea-level pressure for the same day. In winter, the same relationship exists however its correlation is not as strong. The lag observed between these three variables; maximum dew-point temperature, maximum temperature, minimum air-pressure, and the peaks in admissions were one, two and four days, respectively. In winter, increases in temperature and dew point and decreases in pressure are followed by a peak in admissions for group 2. In winter, there are significantly more cases for group 5 on warm-dry days and in warm-wet days in the summer.