Abstract
A study was conducted on the effect of variations of environmental temperature in a subarctic area on the incidence of admission to hospital of patients with toxaemia of pregnancy. Toxaemia of pregnancy was the reason for 1 152 admissions in 1965-1968, and essential hypertension was the reason for 209 admissions. The environmental temperature was correlated with the admission rate: the higher the temperature, the greater was the number of admissions. A minor drop was seen in the rate of admissions in the temperature range 10° to + 10°C, and the same trend was observed in the frequency of the individual symptoms of toxaemia of pregnancy: oedema, proteinuria and hypertension. The incidence of eclampsia followed the same pattern, but to a greater degree. The rate was higher in the temperature ranges 10° to 19°C and + 10° to + 19°C than in the 10° to + 10°C range.
Temperature changes during the two days before the day of hospital admission did not influence the frequency of hospital admissions.