Understanding Weather and Hospital Admissions Patterns to Inform Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Healthcare Sector in Uganda
by
Katherine E. Bishop-Williams 1,*, Lea Berrang-Ford 2,3, Jan M. Sargeant 1,4, David L. Pearl 1, Shuaib Lwasa 2,5
, Didacus Bambaiha Namanya 2,6,7, Victoria L. Edge 1,2,8, Ashlee Cunsolo 9, IHACC Research Team 2, Bwindi Community Hospital 10, Yi Huang 11, James Ford 2,3, Patricia Garcia 2,12 and Sherilee L. Harper 1,2,13,*
Katherine E. Bishop-Williams 1,*, Lea Berrang-Ford 2,3, Jan M. Sargeant 1,4, David L. Pearl 1, Shuaib Lwasa 2,5, Didacus Bambaiha Namanya 2,6,7, Victoria L. Edge 1,2,8, Ashlee Cunsolo 9, IHACC Research Team 2, Bwindi Community Hospital 10, Yi Huang 11, James Ford 2,3, Patricia Garcia 2,12 and Sherilee L. Harper 1,2,13,*
1
Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
2
Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change Research Team: Cesar Carcamo, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada
3
Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
4
Centre for Public Health and Zoonoses, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
5
Department of Geography, Geo-Informatics and Climatic Sciences, School of Forestry, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
6
Ministry of Health, Kampala, Uganda
7
Faculty of Health Sciences, Uganda Martyrs University, Kampala, Uganda
8
Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 019, Canada
9
Labrador Institute, Memorial University, Happy Valley-Goose Bay, NL A0P 1E0, Canada
10
Bwindi Community Hospital, Kanungu District 2JJ8+GP, Uganda
11
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
12
Facultad de Salud Publica y Administracion, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima 15102, Peru
13
School of Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15(11), 2402; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112402
Received: 30 September 2018 / Revised: 21 October 2018 / Accepted: 25 October 2018 / Published: 29 October 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Climate Change and Human Health)
Background: Season and weather are associated with many health outcomes, which can influence hospital admission rates. We examined associations between hospital admissions (all diagnoses) and local meteorological parameters in Southwestern Uganda, with the aim of supporting hospital planning and preparedness in the context of climate change. Methods: Hospital admissions data and meteorological data were collected from Bwindi Community Hospital and a satellite database of weather conditions, respectively (2011 to 2014). Descriptive statistics were used to describe admission patterns. A mixed-effects Poisson regression model was fitted to investigate associations between hospital admissions and season, precipitation, and temperature. Results: Admission counts were highest for acute respiratory infections, malaria, and acute gastrointestinal illness, which are climate-sensitive diseases. Hospital admissions were 1.16 (95% CI: 1.04, 1.31; p = 0.008) times higher during extreme high temperatures (i.e., >95th percentile) on the day of admission. Hospital admissions association with season depended on year; admissions were higher in the dry season than the rainy season every year, except for 2014. Discussion: Effective adaptation strategy characteristics include being low-cost and quick and practical to implement at local scales. Herein, we illustrate how analyzing hospital data alongside meteorological parameters may inform climate-health planning in low-resource contexts.
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Keywords:
season; meteorological parameters; weather; temperature; precipitation; climate change; hospital admissions; hospital planning; climate change adaptation; Southwestern Uganda
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Bishop-Williams, K.E.; Berrang-Ford, L.; Sargeant, J.M.; Pearl, D.L.; Lwasa, S.; Namanya, D.B.; Edge, V.L.; Cunsolo, A.; IHACC Research Team; Bwindi Community Hospital; Huang, Y.; Ford, J.; Garcia, P.; Harper, S.L. Understanding Weather and Hospital Admissions Patterns to Inform Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Healthcare Sector in Uganda. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2402.
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