COPD May Increase in Cold Weather ...

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

After more than 2000 years, conventional medicine has begun to accept

the connection between cold and respiratory disease. See below.

 

Ah, well, better late than never, I suppose ... ;-)

 

Best regards,

 

 

Hospital Admissions for COPD May Increase in Cold Weather:

Presented at ERS. By Paula Moyer

 

[Presentation title: How Different Measures of Cold Weather Affect

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Hospital Admissions

in London. Abstract P909]

 

MUNICH, GERMANY -- September 8, 2006 -- Patients with chronic

obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are more likely to have

exacerbations that require hospitalization during cold weather,

according to a researchers speaking here at the 16th annual meeting of

the European Respiratory Society (ERS).

 

" The relationship between cold and COPD admissions is greater when

considered on a weekly rather than a daily basis, " said principal

investigator Penny Marno, PhD student in mathematics, The Met Office,

Exeter, United Kingdom.

 

" Improving the understanding of how the cold affects people's health will

help us develop intervention measures for patients based on their

respective degree of risk, " said Ms. Marno, who collaborated on the

study with Helen A. Watkin, PhD, senior applied scientist in the health

program, the Met Office, a weather observation office in Exeter, United

Kingdom. Ms. Marno received a travel award for the quality of the

presentation.

 

Knowing that COPD symptoms are worse during colder weather, the

investigators wanted to see whether different measures of cold were

more strongly correlated to COPD admissions and whether they could

be used to forecast the risk of exacerbations, she said during her

presentation on September 3rd.

 

The investigators used COPD admissions from the Strategic Health

Authorities in London and extracted the corresponding meteorological

data for October through March for the years 1997 to 2003. They then

used the information to compare the effects on admissions of the

following factors: 1) daily average, high, and low temperature; 2)

significant decreases in temperature; 3) the weekly average high

temperature; 4) " cumulative cold, " or the sum of the number of degrees

the daily high temperature was below a given threshold for a week; and

5) various wind chill indices.

 

All measures of cold studied were related significantly to COPD

admissions, Ms. Marno said. The daily relationships (R=-0.19, P <.001)

were weaker than the weekly ones (R=-0.36, P <.001). However, daily

temperatures were most significant with an 8-day lag.

 

Wind chill, which accounted for 20% of the variation in admissions, had

the strongest correlation with a 1-week lag (R=-0.397, P <.001).

" Cumulative cold " was also significant (P <.001), with a correlation

ranging from R=0.28 for a threshold of 3¡ãC to R=0.36 for a threshold

of 18¡ãC.

 

The investigators concluded that cold measures explain sufficient

variation in COPD hospital admissions to be used for forecasting the

risk of COPD exacerbations. Ms. Marno noted that the Met Office uses

a model with such cold measures to anticipate pressures that may be

placed on care services in England.