Meteorological parameters and hospitalizations of patients with sickle cell anemia: a 20-year retrospective study in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

ABSTRACT

To investigate the influence of climate on hospitalizations of sickle cell anemia (SCA) adults and children, we analyzed the health and meteorological parameters from a metropolis (1999-2018). 1462 hospitalizations were coded for SCA patients in crisis (M:F = 715:747) and 1354 hospitalizations for SCA patients without crisis (M:F = 698:656) [age = 22.9 vs 15.2 years and duration of hospitalization (DoH) = 5.7 vs 4.4 days, respectively,]. More hospitalizations were for adults than children in crisis, and for children than adults without crisis. More children and adults were hospitalized in winter andspring than in summer and autumn     Hospitalizations correlated positively with humidity (lag −5), maximum pressure (lag −2), mean pressure (lag −2), and thermal amplitude (lag −2), and negatively with maximum temperature (lag −3). DoH positively correlated with minimum temperature (lag −4). Understanding these complex associations would induce attitudinal/behavioral modifications among patients and their caregivers.

KEYWORDS:

• Sickle cell anemia
• environmental parameters
• meteorological parameters
• hospitalization
• ICD-10

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to appreciate the Department of Statistics, School of Medical Sciences for the preliminary statistical analysis. This work is part of the project ‘Human health and adaptation to climate change in Brazil’: funded by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP, #17/20013-0). The authors appreciate the support from the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, #190374/2017-9), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), and Teaching, Research Support Fund, and Extension-FAEPEX/UNICAMP (Brazil).

The funding organizations had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2022.2098258

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP,#17/20013-0), National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, #190374/2017-9), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), and Teaching, Research Support Fund, and Extension-FAEPEX /UNICAMP (Brazil).