Association between Temperature Change and Outpatient Visits for Respiratory Tract Infections among Children in Guangzhou, China

The current study examined the association between temperature change and clinical visits for childhood respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in Guangzhou, China. Outpatient records of clinical visits for pediatric RTIs, which occurred from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2013, were collected from Guangzhou Women and Children's Hospital. Records for meteorological variables during the same period were obtained from the Guangzhou Meteorological Bureau. Temperature change was defined as the difference between the mean temperatures on two consecutive days. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used to examine the impact of temperature change on pediatric outpatient visits for RTIs. A large temperature decrease was associated with a significant risk for an RTI, with the effect lasting for ~10 days. The maximum effect of a temperature drop (-8.8 °C) was reached at lag 2~3 days. Children aged 0-2 years, and especially those aged <1 year, were particularly vulnerable to the effects of temperature drop. An extreme temperature decrease affected the number of patient visits for both upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) and lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs). A temperature change between consecutive days, and particularly an extreme temperature decrease, was significantly associated with increased pediatric outpatient visits for RTIs in Guangzhou.