Seasonal variation of patulous Eustachian tube diagnoses using climatic and national health insurance data

ObjectivesThis study aimed to analyse if there were any associations between patulous Eustachian tube occurrence and climatic factors and seasonality.MethodsThe correlation between the monthly average number of patients diagnosed with patulous Eustachian tube and climatic factors in Seoul, Korea, fr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of laryngology and otology 2021-08, Vol.135 (8), p.695-701
Main Authors: Lee, S, Choi, S-W, Kim, J, Lee, H M, Oh, S-J, Kong, S-K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric pressure
Autumn
Confidence intervals
Health insurance
Humidity
Main Articles
Medical diagnosis
Personal information
Population
Regression analysis
Relative humidity
Seasonal variations
Summer
Winter
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Summary:ObjectivesThis study aimed to analyse if there were any associations between patulous Eustachian tube occurrence and climatic factors and seasonality.MethodsThe correlation between the monthly average number of patients diagnosed with patulous Eustachian tube and climatic factors in Seoul, Korea, from January 2010 to December 2016, was statistically analysed using national data sets.ResultsThe relative risk for patulous Eustachian tube occurrence according to season was significantly higher in summer and autumn, and lower in winter than in spring (relative risk (95 per cent confidence interval): 1.334 (1.267–1.404), 1.219 (1.157–1.285) and 0.889 (0.840–0.941) for summer, autumn and winter, respectively). Temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity had a moderate positive (r = 0.648), negative (r = –0.601) and positive (r = 0.492) correlation with the number of patulous Eustachian tube cases, respectively.ConclusionThe number of patulous Eustachian tube cases was highest in summer and increased in proportion to changes in temperature and humidity, which could be due to physiological changes caused by climatic factors or diet trends.
ISSN:0022-2151
1748-5460
DOI:10.1017/S0022215121001596