Background Climate change leads to frequent extreme weather events, which may have a certain health impact, especially on vulnerable groups. Changes in meteorological factors during typhoon landfall can affect the health of people.
Objective The purpose of this study is to observe the trends of pediatric outpatient visits before and after typhoons and the changes of disease composition in a hospital in Guangzhou, and to explore the relationship between meteorological factors and pediatric disease categories during typhoons.
Methods Meteorological data and pediatric outpatient visits of the hospital in two weeks before and after the landfalls of three typhoons in 2015 were collected (Lotus:from June 24 to July 24, Soudelor:from July 26 to August 29, Rainbow:from September 19 to October 19). The changes of the number of pediatric outpatient visits and disease composition before and after the three typhoons were compared. Spearman correlation analysis was used to explore the relationship between changes in meteorological factors and the disease category with most pediatric outpatient visits before and after typhoons.
Results During the three typhoon events, the daily maximum temperature (median, thereafter) 33.7, 33.5, and 30.4℃, respectively; the medians of daily minimum temperature was 25.4, 24.3, and 23.3℃, respectively; the average daily temperature was 28.8, 28.1, and 25.2℃, respectively; the average daily wind speed was 2.6, 1.6, and 2.3 m/s, respectively; the average daily air pressure was 994.2, 993.3, and 1 004.4 hpa, respectively; the relative humidity was 73%, 76%, and 77%, respectively; the daily outpatient number was 1 344, 1 189, and 1 286, respectively, among which the number of patients visiting respiratory outpatients was 954, 815, and 929, respectively. The numbers of pediatric outpatient visits before the three typhoons were higher than those after landfall. The proportions of respiratory outpatient visits to total pediatric outpatient visits before and after the three typhoons were all the highest, and the proportion before the typhoons was higher than that after. Specifically, before the landing of typhoons Lotus, Soudelor, and Rainbow, the proportions of respiratory outpatient visits to the total pediatric outpatient visits were 73.5%, 69.2%, and 72.5%, respectively; and the proportions after the landing were 70.5%, 67.9%, and 70.5%, respectively. The Spearman correlation analysis results showed that for typhoon Lotus, the numbers of patients visiting the pediatric respiratory outpatient department before and after its landing were positively correlated with average daily maxmum temperature and average daily temperature, and negatively correlated with average air pressure (P < 0.05); for typhoon Soudelor, the numbers were negatively correlated with average daily minimum temperature and average air pressure (P < 0.05); for typhoon Rainbow, the numbers were negatively correlated with average daily temperature and average air pressure, and positively correlated with relative humidity (P < 0.05). Before and after the landfalls of the three typhoons, average air pressure was all negatively correlated with respiratory outpatient volume, and the correlation coefficients before their landing were -0.305, -0.402, and -0.749, respectively.
Conclusion Before typhoon landfall, the number of pediatric outpatient visits would be higher than after the landfall; meanwhile, the change of average air pressure is correlated with the number of pediatric respiratory outpatient visits.
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