Seasonal variation in the incidence of spontaneous pneumothorax and its association with climate: A nationwide population-based study

  1. Chao-Hung CHEN1,2,
  2. Yu Ru KOU2,
  3. Chin-Shyan CHEN3,
  4. Herng-Ching LIN4,*

Article first published online: 11 JAN 2010

DOI: 10.1111/j.1440-1843.2009.01684.x

Issue

Respirology

Respirology

Volume 15, Issue 2, pages 296–302, February 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

CHEN, C.-H., KOU, Y. R., CHEN, C.-S. and LIN, H.-C. (2010), Seasonal variation in the incidence of spontaneous pneumothorax and its association with climate: A nationwide population-based study. Respirology, 15: 296–302. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-1843.2009.01684.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Thoracic Surgery, Mackay Memorial Hospital,

  2. 2

    Department and Institute of Physiology, National Yang-Ming University,

  3. 3

    Department of Economics, National Taipei University, and

  4. 4

    School of Healthcare Administration, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

*Herng-Ching Lin, School of Health Care Administration, Taipei Medical University, 250 Wu-Hsing Street, Taipei 110, Taiwan. Email: henry11111@tmu.edu.tw

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 26 JAN 2010
  2. Article first published online: 11 JAN 2010
  3. Received 1 June 2009; invited to revise 22 July 2009, 8 September 2009; revised 9 August 2009, 11 September 2009; accepted 21 September 2009 (Associate Editor: Andreas Diacon).

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Keywords:

  • climate;
  • rainfall;
  • relative humidity;
  • seasonality;
  • spontaneous pneumothorax

This study investigated seasonal variation in the incidence of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) among young adults aged 15–44 years, in order to identify possible associations with meteorological parameters in a subtropical Asian climate. Neither particular months nor seasons of the year were significantly associated with the incidence of SP.

ABSTRACT

Background and objective:  While links between meteorological conditions and the incidence of spontaneous pneumothorax (SP) have been postulated, the findings are controversial. In this first large-scale, nationwide, population-based study, seasonal variation in the incidence of SP among young adults aged 15–44 years was investigated, in order to identify possible associations with meteorological parameters (rainfall, ambient temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure, hours of sunshine) in a subtropical Asian climate.

Methods:  Data (2001–2005) from the National Health Insurance Research Database were used to identify a total of 8575 patients who had been hospitalized with a principal diagnosis of SP. The autoregressive integrated moving average method was used to evaluate the effects of seasonality and monthly climatic factors on the incidence of SP.

Results:  The incidence of SP was not significantly associated with either particular months of the year or seasons. After adjusting for seasonality, month and time trends, relative humidity was positively associated with the monthly incidence of SP among men, while ambient temperature and rainfall were significantly associated with SP events among women. However, changes in monthly atmospheric pressure did not appear to influence the monthly risk of SP.

Conclusions:  These results do not support the premise that seasonal factors are involved in precipitating SP, although certain climatic parameters showed weak associations with the incidence of SP. Future studies should investigate other combinations of weather phenomena and potential triggering factors, in order to shed light on the occurrence of SP in various regions and climatic conditions, and among both men and women.

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