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Temperature changes between neighboring days and childhood asthma: a seasonal analysis in Shanghai, China

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Abstract

Few evidences are available about the impact of temperature variation on childhood asthma in different seasons. This study aimed to assess the influence of temperature changes between neighboring days (TCN) on the exacerbation of asthma among children. Daily outpatient visits for childhood asthma (DOVCA) were collected from 17 main hospitals in Shanghai, China, from 2016 to 2018. A quasi-Poisson regression combined with distributed lagged nonlinear models was employed to estimate the association between TCN and asthma visits in cool or warm seasons, after controlling for short- and long-term trends, day of week, holidays, daily mean temperature, daily mean relative humidity, and air pollutants. The TCN varied from − 9.6 to 6.7 °C. The relationship between TCN and DOVCA greatly varied by season. In warm seasons, positive TCN (temperature rise) was associated with higher risks of asthma outpatient visits and negative TCN (temperature drop) was associated with lower risks; the associations were present on lag 1 day and lasted for 2 weeks; the cumulative relative risk of childhood asthma over 0 to 14 days was 1.98 (95% confidence interval: 1.42, 2.76) and 0.31 (95% confidence intervals: 0.21, 0.44) comparing a TCN of 2.5 °C (5th percentile) and − 3.2 °C (95th percentile) with 0 °C, respectively. In cool seasons, neither negative nor positive TCN showed significant risks. In conclusion, temperature rise might increase the risk of childhood asthma exacerbation and temperature drop might decrease the risks in warm seasons. There were no statistically significant influences in cool seasons.

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Funding

The study was supported by the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (18411951700), Open Foundation of Shanghai Key Laboratory of Meteorological and Health (QXJK201802), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M661377).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Xiaoning Lei and Lijuan Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, Key Lab of Public Health Safety of the Ministry of Education and NHC Key Laboratory of Health Technology Assessment, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Xiaoning Lei, Renjie Chen, Cong Liu & Haidong Kan

  2. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, No. 399 Wanyuan Road, Shanghai, 201102, China

    Lijuan Liu, Liling Qian, Libo Wang & Xiaobo Zhang

  3. Department of Pediatrics, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, 200080, China

    Jianguo Hong

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200127, China

    Lanfang Cao & Min Xia

  5. Department of Pediatrics, South Campus, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 201112, China

    Yanming Lu & Bo Ding

  6. Department of Respiratory Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China

    Xiaoyan Dong

  7. Guangdong Midea Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd, Foshan, Guangdong, China

    Xinchang Chen & Xiangwei Qiu

  8. Department of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, 201102, China

    Wenhao Zhou

  9. Cardiovascular Center, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, 201102, China

    Yonghao Gui

  10. Institute of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, 201102, China

    Yufeng Zhou

  11. Institutes of Biomedical Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, China

    Yufeng Zhou

Authors
  1. Xiaoning Lei
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  2. Lijuan Liu
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  3. Renjie Chen
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  4. Cong Liu
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  6. Lanfang Cao
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  7. Yanming Lu
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  8. Xiaoyan Dong
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  9. Xinchang Chen
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  10. Xiangwei Qiu
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  11. Min Xia
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  12. Bo Ding
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  13. Liling Qian
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  14. Libo Wang
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  15. Wenhao Zhou
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  16. Yonghao Gui
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  17. Haidong Kan
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  18. Yufeng Zhou
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  19. Xiaobo Zhang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yufeng Zhou or Xiaobo Zhang.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The Institutional Review Board at the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University approved the study protocol (No. 2018-215) with a waiver of informed consent. Data were analyzed at aggregate level and no participants were contacted.

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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests.

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Lei, X., Liu, L., Chen, R. et al. Temperature changes between neighboring days and childhood asthma: a seasonal analysis in Shanghai, China. Int J Biometeorol 65, 827–836 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02057-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-02057-x

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