Influência de variáveis meteorológicas na ocorrência de asma e pneumonia.

Abstract

Climatic variables generated increasing concern about the potential effects on human health, especially those related to communicable diseases, as they are an important cause of morbidity and mortality and afflict millions of people in different regions of the world, especially in underdeveloped countries. In this sense, the present research aims to analyze the influence of meteorological variables (precipitation, temperature and relative air humidity) and the number of cases of respiratory diseases (asthma and pneumonia) in the municipalities of Campina Grande, PB and Patos, PB , from 1998 to 2016. For that, a retrospective and descriptive epidemiological study was carried out with a quantitative approach. The data of the meteorological variables adopted in this research were obtained in the meteorological stations of the State of Paraíba, available at the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET). Data from hospital admissions for asthma and pneumonia were obtained from the Hospital Information System (SIH / SUS), made available by the Department of Information of the National Health System (DATASUS). The statistical treatment was composed of the association measures, Pearson Correlation (r) and the Coefficient of Determination (R²) to verify the correlation between the cases of asthma and pneumonia with the meteorological variables (precipitation, temperature and humidity of the air). The correlations obtained verified that the climatic elements interfere to a great extent for the increase of hospitalizations of these diseases, taking into account the aspect of the seasonality and the average monthly values of precipitation, temperature and humidity of the air. Therefore, the highest incidence of hospitalizations occurred between April and August, when the lowest air temperatures and the highest relative air humidity occurred. The main contributions are essential factors to understand the consequences that changes in climatic variables can cause in the health of the population of the studied municipalities. As a recommendation, we highlight the limitation of the study that relates to underreporting of diseases, lack of opportunity in the registry, incorrect diagnoses, among others, that may occur with the offices responsible for providing health information.