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Impact of temperature on hospital admission for acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) among pre-school children in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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Abstract

Changes in ambient temperature have been reported as an important risk factor for respiratory diseases among pre-school children. However, there have been few studies so far on the effects of temperature on children respiratory health in developing countries including Vietnam. This study examined the impact of short-term changes in ambient temperature on hospital admissions for acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) among children aged less than 5 years old in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. Data on daily hospital admissions from 2013 to 2017 were collected from two large paediatric hospitals of the city. Daily meteorological data of the same period were also collected. Time series analysis was performed to evaluate the association between risk of hospitalisations and temperatures categorised by seasons, age, and causes. We found that a 1 °C increase in maximum temperature was associated with 4.2 and 3.4% increase in hospital admission for ALRI among children 3–5 years old during the dry season and the rainy season, respectively. Surprisingly, in the rainy season, a rise of 1°C diurnal temperature range (DTR) was significantly associated with a decrease from 2.0 to 2.5% risk of hospitalisation for ALRI among children <3 years old. These findings suggested that although high temperature is a risk factor for hospital admissions among children in general, other modifiable factors such as age, exposure time, air conditioning usage, wearing protective clothing, socioeconomic status, and behaviour may influence the overall effect of high temperature on hospital admissions of children <5 years old in HCMC. The findings of this study have provided evidence for building public health policies aimed at preventing and minimizing the adverse health effects of temperature on children in HCMC.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Children’s Hospital No. 1 and Children’s Hospital No. 2 in Ho Chi Minh City for providing hospital admission data.

Availability of data and material

The hospital data that support the findings of this study are available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of Children’s Hospital.

Code availability

Stata 14.0 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA) was used for data cleaning and analysis associated with the current submission. All custom code is available at supplementary materials.

Funding

This research is funded by Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) under grant number NHMRC.108.03-2018.04 and by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council grant number APP1155241

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Author notes

  1. Hieu K.T. Ngo and Ly M. T. Luong contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

    Hieu K.T. Ngo, Hong H.T.C Le, Tran Ngoc Dang & An Le Pham

  2. Faculty of Environmental Sciences, VNU University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Ly M. T. Luong

  3. Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Hong H.T.C Le

  4. Centre for Environment and Population Health, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Dung Phung

  5. Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences (QAEHS), The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4102, Australia

    Phong K. Thai

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  1. Hieu K.T. Ngo
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Contributions

HN performed the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. LL participated in the design of the study, performed the statistical analysis, and helped to draft the manuscript. HL and TD collected data, participated in the design of the study, and helped to revise the manuscript. DP participated in the sequence alignment and helped to revise the manuscript. AP conceived of the study and helped to revise the manuscript. PT conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, and helped to revise the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Phong K. Thai.

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This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam.

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All the data have been de-identified previously and consent to participate is not required.

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The authors declare that consent for publication is not required.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Ngo, H.K., Luong, L.M.T., Le, H.H. et al. Impact of temperature on hospital admission for acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) among pre-school children in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Int J Biometeorol 65, 1205–1214 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-021-02104-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-021-02104-1

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