Environmental factors affecting seasonality of ambulance emergency service visits for exacerbations of asthma and COPD

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the association of severe exacerbations of asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) requiring ambulance emergency service (AES) visits with meteorological parameters and influenza outbreaks. Methods: The records of patients calling the AE...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of asthma 2016-02, Vol.53 (2), p.139-145
Main Authors: Brzezińska-Pawłowska, Olga E., Rydzewska, Anna D., Łuczyńska, Marta, Majkowska-Wojciechowska, Barbara, Kowalski, Marek L., Makowska, Joanna S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Air Pollutants - analysis
Allergens - analysis
Ambulances
Asthma
Asthma - epidemiology
Cities - epidemiology
COPD
Disease Outbreaks
Emergency Medical Services - statistics & numerical data
emergency service
Female
Humans
influenza outbreaks
Influenza, Human - epidemiology
Male
Middle Aged
Poland - epidemiology
Pollen
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive - epidemiology
Seasons
temperature
Weather
Young Adult
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Summary:Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the association of severe exacerbations of asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) requiring ambulance emergency service (AES) visits with meteorological parameters and influenza outbreaks. Methods: The records of patients calling the AES in 2007 and 2008 in the urban area of Lodz due to dyspnea were analyzed. Information on 25 daily reported meteorological parameters was obtained from the local meteorological service and data on influenza outbreaks obtained from the national surveillance service. Results: During the winter months, a significantly higher mean daily number of AES visits for both COPD and asthma were noticed when compared to the summer. Interestingly, the number of daily AES visits correlated with several weather parameters, and the multiple regression analysis confirmed a negative correlation with minimum temperature, mean temperature and the dew point for both diseases (R = 0.526; p 
ISSN:0277-0903
1532-4303
DOI:10.3109/02770903.2015.1075547