Influence of climate on the incidence of acute respiratory infections in children at the districts of campina grande and monteiro, paraíba, brazil

ABSTRACT

The present study evaluated the influence of climatic variables (rainfall, air temperature and humidity) on the incidence of Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) in children under two years old in the counties of Monteiro and Campina Grande, Paraíba, during the period from 1998 to 2012. A multiple linear correlation model was used to assess relationship between climate variables and the number of cases of ARI. The results for Campina Grande, revealed a quadratic behavior of the IRA variable in children under two years old and the maximum occurrence of these cases between the years 2003 and 2005. However, at Monteiro, the annual number of occurrence of ARI cases is highly variable and irregular. In Campina Grande, only temperature and relative humidity were significant to represent the incidence of ARI in children younger than 2 years, with 99% of the variability explained by the model. However, at Monteiro, the analysis shows that the three climate variables were significant for representing the incidence of these infections with 90% of the variability explained by the model.

Keywords:
respiratory diseases; rainfall; air temperature and relative humidity.