ABSTRACT

Purpose: To assess the correlation between meteorological factors and spinal disease admissions. Methods: Data was obtained from the electronic medical records of a tertiary general hospital. Meteorological data was collected from China Meteorological Science Data Sharing Service. Distributed lag nonlinear models were used to evaluate the impact of meteorological variables on weekly spinal disease admissions. Results: A total of 2739 spinal cases were documented. Compared with estimates at the 50^th, the cumulative relative risk (RR) for extremely high temperatures at the 97.5^th over lag week 18 to lag week 20 increased by 75.7%. When the weekly maximum temperature reached 38°C during lag week 20, the maximum RR was 1.96 (95% CI:1.095–3.506). Moreover, the effects of extremely high temperatures on spinal disease admissions were more obvious in females and the age group ≥65 years old compared with males and the age group<65 years old. Conclusions: Extremely high temperatures were significantly associated with higher risks of spinal disease admissions.