Naslov
Weather patterns and variability related to childhood asthma admissions in Zagreb, Croatia

Autori
Nastos, Panagiotis T., Zaninović, Ksenija

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u zbornicima skupova, cjeloviti rad (in extenso), znanstveni

Izvornik
18th International Congress of Biometeorology, Harmony within Nature / Iriki, Masami - Tokyo, 2008

Skup
18th International Congress of Biometeorology, Harmony within Nature

Mjesto i datum
Tokyo, Japan, 22.09.2008. - 26.09.2008

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Poster

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
meteorological parameters; weather pattern; factor analysis; cluster analysis

Sažetak
The objective of this paper is to investigate the possible influence of weather patterns and variability on the childhood asthma admissions (CAA). The frequency of the daily CAA treated in the Hospital for respiratory diseases in Zagreb during 1984, was acquired. The meteorological variables obtained from the meteorological observatory Zagreb Maksimir concern daily values of 7 parameters: maximum (Tmax), minimum (Tmin) and mean temperature (Tmean), diurnal temperature range (Trange=Tmax– Tmin), mean water vapor pressure (e), mean atmospheric pressure at sea level (P) and mean sunshine duration (S), and their day-to-day changes (ΔTmax, ΔTmin, ΔTmean, ΔTrange, Δe, ΔP and ΔS). The relationship between CAA and the meteorological parameters was evaluated by the application of: a) Factor Analysis (FA) and Cluster Analysis (CA), b) Pearson χ2 test, the most widely used method of independence control of groups in lines and columns in a table of frequencies and c) Generalized Linear Models with Poisson distribution. The application of Factor Analysis to the meteorological parameters resulted in 4 main factors which explain 80.6% of the total variance of the weather in Zagreb for 1984. In the process, Cluster Analysis was applied to the factor scores extracted by the Factor Analysis and 6 weather types with different characteristics were derived. In order to decide whether the total number of CAA depends on the weather types, Pearson’s χ2 test was applied. If the null hypothesis of independence is fulfilled, then CAA do not depend on the weather types, while, in the opposite case, a relationship can be detected between them. As a result, it was found that the probability of independence is not 0 (p=0.206) ; namely, CAA are not in close relation to the weather types. With respect to the single examined meteorological parameters, a statistically significant negative relationship was found between day-to-day changes of daily mean and maximum temperatures and daily temperature range and CAA. A 10% decrease in day-to-day changes of mean daily air temperature, maximum air temperature and diurnal air temperature range is related with an increase 31%, 32% and 20% of the probability having CAA, respectively.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

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