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African dust clouds are associated with increased paediatric asthma accident and emergency admissions on the Caribbean island of Trinidad

International Journal of Biometeorology volume 49, pages 371–376 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

A retrospective ecological study of paediatric asthma patients who attended the Accident and Emergency (A&E) department of the Paediatric Priority Care Facility at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in relation to Saharan dust visibility and other climatic variables for the period 23 May 2001 to 13 May 2002 was undertaken to determine if there is an association between paediatric A&E asthma visits and Saharan dust cloud cover. A Poisson regression model was used to determine the statistical relationship between acute paediatric asthma A&E visits and Saharan dust cover with and without other variables such as climatic parameters and month. During the study period, there were 2,655 A&E visits for acute asthma. There was an association between increased paediatric asthma admissions and increased Saharan dust cover. The best fitting model estimated that in one month, such as June, a deterioration of visibility due to increased Saharan dust cover from no dust (visibility =16 km) to very dusty (visibility =7 km) would increase a daily admission rate of 7.8 patients to 9.25 when climate variables such as barometric pressure and humidity were kept constant.

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Acknowledgements

The success of this project is largely owed to the very kind assistance of the following persons: Miss Marisa Nimrod and Miss Gina Joseph, members of Dr. Monteil’s research group; Dr. Celia Poon King and the staff of the Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies; Dr. Rasheed Rahaman, Medical Chief of Staff, Mt. Hope Hospital; Dr. Beni Balkaran, Director, Department of Paediatrics, Mt. Hope Hospital; Mr. Glendell de Souza and the staff of the Meteorological Office of Trinidad & Tobago; Isaac Dialsingh, Assistant Lecturer and the staff of the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies.

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Affiliations

  1. School of Basic Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies

    K. Gyan, W. Henry, S. Lacaille, A. Laloo, C. Lamsee-Ebanks & S. McKay

  2. Department of Mathematics & Computer Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture & Natural Sciences, University of the West Indies, Trinidad, West Indies

    R. M. Antoine

  3. Department of Para-Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, Trinidad, West Indies

    M. A. Monteil

Authors
  1. K. Gyan
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  2. W. Henry
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  3. S. Lacaille
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  4. A. Laloo
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  5. C. Lamsee-Ebanks
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  6. S. McKay
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  7. R. M. Antoine
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  8. M. A. Monteil
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. A. Monteil.

Appendix 1: Correlations between climactic variables used in modeling

Appendix 1: Correlations between climactic variables used in modeling

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Gyan, K., Henry, W., Lacaille, S. et al. African dust clouds are associated with increased paediatric asthma accident and emergency admissions on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Int J Biometeorol 49, 371–376 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-005-0257-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-005-0257-3

Keywords

  • Saharan dust
  • Paediatric
  • Asthma
  • Accident and emergency
  • Caribbean