The Association Between Diurnal Temperature Range and Clinic Visits for Upper Respiratory Tract Infection Among College Students in Wuhan, China

Abstract

\n The effects of daily mean temperature on health outcomes have been discussed in many previous studies, but few have considered the adverse impacts due to variance of temperature in one day. Diurnal temperature range (DTR) was a novel indicator calculated as maximum temperature minus minimum temperature in the same day. In this study, generalized additive model (GAM) with quasi-Poisson distribution was used to investigate the association between DTR and the number of daily outpatient visits for upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) among college students. Data about meteorological factors and air pollutants were provided by Hubei Meteorological Bureau and Wuhan Environmental Protection Bureau, respectively. Outpatient visits data were provided by the Hospital of Wuhan University from January 1, 2016 to November 31, 2018. Short-term exposure to DTR was associated with the increased risk of outpatient for URTI among all college students. Per 1 ℃ increased in DTR was associated with 0.89% (95%CI: 0.40, 1.38) increased in outpatient visits of all college students for URTI at lag 0 day. The greatest effect values were observed in males [1.83% (95%CI: 0.81, 2.86)], and in females [1.44% (95%CI: 0.51, 2.38)] at lag 0–6 days. DTR had more adverse health impact in the warm season than that in the cold season. Public health departments should consider the negative effect of DTR to formulate more effective preventive and control measures for protecting vulnerable people.