Impact of climate variability on human health: A pilot study in tertiary care hospital of Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

This study is an attempt to find out the effect of climate variables on respiratory, cardiovascular, vector-borne and diarrheal diseases from 2004-2013 carried out at Sir Sunder Lal hospital, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh with focus on eastern Uttar Pradesh. The study shows that cases of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) and Cardiovascular Disorders (CVD) didn’t show any significant relation with any of the climate variables. With increase of 1 C mean maximum monthly temperature the estimated decrease in number of Tuberculosis (TB) patients was 4 (95% CI = 4.95-3.05) while a 1C increase in minimum monthly temperature showed increase of TB patients by 4 (95% CI = 4.95-3.05). One percent increase of monthly averaged relative humidity is estimated to increase the one pneumonia patients (95% CI = 1.95-0.05) at any given month. One-degree increase in given monthly temperature will increase the load of one diarrhea patients (95% CI = 1.95-0.05) monthly.  Dengue and Malaria patients showed increasing monthly malaria cases by 5 (95% CI = 5.95-4.05) with 1C rise in minimum monthly temperature and by 1 patient (95% CI = 1.95-0.05) with increase in 1% relative humidity. Encephalitis showed an increase of one patient load (95% CI = 1.95-0.05) with monthly increase of 1C in maximum temperature. The study shows advance knowledge of health information, on timescales of seasons to decades ahead, would aid effective planning of health response measures and infrastructure at local and regional scale.