Impact of meteorological factors on the emergence of bronchiolitis in North-western Greece

Exploring the Relationship between Wind Patterns and Hospital Admissions Due to Respiratory Symptoms in Children

Respiratory disorders significantly impact adolescents' health, often resulting in hospital admissions. Meteorological elements such as wind patterns have emerged as potential contributors to respiratory symptoms. However, it remains uncertain whether fluctuations in wind characteristics over extended periods have a tangible impact on respiratory health, particularly in regions characterized by distinct annual wind patterns. Crete is situated in the central-eastern Mediterranean Sea and frequently faces southerly winds carrying Sahara Desert sand from Africa and northerly winds from the Aegean Sea. This retrospective study analyzes long-term wind direction data and their relationship to respiratory symptoms observed in children up to 14 years old admitted at the University Hospital of Heraklion between 2002 and 2010. Symptoms such as headache, dyspnea, dry cough, dizziness, tachypnea, throat ache, and earache were predominantly reported during the presence of southern winds. Fever, productive cough, and chest pain were more frequently reported during northern winds. Cough was the most common symptom regardless of the wind pattern. Southern winds were significantly associated with higher probabilities of productive or non-productive cough, headache, dyspnea, tachypnea, dizziness, earache, and throat ache. Northern winds were related to a higher incidence of productive cough. Rhinitis, asthma, allergies, pharyngitis, and sinusitis were related to southern winds, while bronchiolitis and pneumonia were associated with northern winds. These findings underscore the critical role of local climatic factors, emphasizing their potential impact on exacerbating respiratory conditions in children. Moreover, they point out the need for further research to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and develop targeted interventions for at-risk populations.

The influence of weather types over northern Greece on respiratory and cardio-vascular mortality

Extreme ambient temperatures are well-known for their adverse impact on public health, in the form of increased mortality and morbidity due to respiratory and cardio-vascular diseases. However, to capture the total impact of weather on cause-specific mortality/morbidity, the synoptic atmospheric conditions over the region under study need to be taken into account. The objective of this work is to identify weather types over Thessaloniki, Greece, statistically associated with mortality from circulatory and respiratory diseases, in an attempt to holistically determine the impact of weather on cause-specific mortality in the region. For this purpose, we employed datasets from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis comprising intrinsic daily data, gridded at a resolution of 2.5°×2.5° and covering a 41-year period (1980-2020). The first set used contains data of 500 hPa and 1,000 hPa geopotential heights for the main geographical domain of the Mediterranean region (30°N-45°N, 10°Ε-35°E). The second set comprises meteorological variables (2 m temperature, specific humidity, 2 m zonal and 2 m meridional wind and total cloud cover) for a geographical domain of north Greece (40.95°Ν, 22.50°Ε-26.25°E). We applied a combination of principal components analysis (PCA) as a dimensionality reduction tool and k-means cluster analysis (CA) in order to group days with homogeneous synoptic meteorological parameters. The derived weather types were statistically correlated with respiratory and mortality data for the time-period 1999-2018. It was concluded that the most fatal conditions for public health in Thessaloniki were associated with weather types bringing low/extremely low ambient temperature over north Greece.

A Method for Designing a Patient Burden Questionnaire in Dermatology

Introduction

In recent years, the concept of “disease burden” has been given a central role in evaluating patient care, particularly in skin diseases. Measuring patient-reported outcomes (PRO) such as symptoms and disease burden may be useful.

Aim

To present a methodology that facilitates the development and validation of burden questionnaires for patients suffering from skin diseases.

Methodology

Based on past published burden questionnaires, a methodology for designing skin disease burden questionnaires was to be developed.

Results

Based on 16 burden questionnaires developed and published over the last 10 years, the authors propose a standardized methodology for the easy design and validation of disease burden questionnaires for patients with chronic skin diseases. The authors provide detailed guidance for the conception, development and validation of the questionnaires, including reliability, internal consistency, external validity, cognitive debriefing, testing–retesting, translation and cross-cultural adaptation, as well as for statistical analysis.

Conclusion

The proposed methodology enhances the design and validation of disease burden questionnaires in dermatology. Burden questionnaires may be used in clinical research as well as in daily clinical practice.

Home dampness-related exposures increase the risk of common colds among preschool children in Shanghai, China: Modified by household ventilation

Few studies have estimated the effects of dampness-related exposures and its interaction effects with poor household ventilation on common colds of preschool children. During April 2011-April 2012, we conducted a cross-sectional survey on home environment and childhood health and collected 13,335 parents-reported questionnaires of 4-6 year-old children in Shanghai, China. In this paper, we investigated associations between the incidence and duration of common colds among these children during the past 12 months before the survey and frequency of opening windows, as well as household dampness-related exposures (indicated by six dampness indicators). Significantly higher incidence (≥3 times) and longer duration (≥2 weeks) of common cold were found among children with than without these dampness exposures (p-value <0.01 for mold spots and p-value <0.001 for all other indicators). The number of dampness-related indicators had a positive and strong dose-response relationship with common colds (p-trend <0.01). Low frequency of ventilation was also a risk factor for children common colds. After adjusted for the potential confounders in the multiple logistic regression analyses, all dampness-related indicators were significantly associated with the increased odds of common colds and the highest odds ratios was 1.21 (95% CI: 1.16-1.27). We also found that dampness-related exposures and household ventilation habits (p-value for interaction <0.001) had a strong interaction effect on the incidence and duration of common cold. The stratified analysis of ventilation condition displays that the influence of dampness-related exposures has been modified by ventilation. Therefore, good household ventilation habits may have an effect of modification for dampness-related exposures.