Relação entre variáveis ambientais e problemas respiratórios em crianças da cidade de Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Because of the need to expand the understanding of the diseases that often affect humans, the objective of this research was to analyze the association among different types of weather and the occurrence of respiratory diseases in children (0 to 5 years old) of the municipality of Canoas, RS. Health data were collected of consultations at health posts between January/2005 and September/2008, where respiratory complications were classified into three groups: Asthma (asthma and bronchitis), ARI (Acute Respiratory Infections) and Asthma/ARI (junction of Asthma and IRA). Initially, a descriptive analysis of the health and meteorological data was carried out, followed by a correlation analysis. After that, were selected the periods and the variables for the principal component analysis (PCA), which enabled to be obtained specific time types associated with increased of queries and the creation of mathematical models estimator of queries (from the linear regression technique). Finally, a case study was carried out, using meteorological fields and air mass trajectories through reanalysis data. The results showed that the three groups of diseases showed a relatively similar behavior in relation to the environmental variables (at 12Z, which was the most representative time), however, the largest associations occurred with the Asthma/ARI group, where the increase of their consultations was mainly related to the drop in air temperature (on the same day or one day before), followed by an increase in atmospheric pressure and relative humidity (RH; both on the same day), decrease in human thermal confort index (HTCI; two days before) and increase concentrations of Carbon Monoxide (five days before) and of inhalable particles (PM10; same day). Regarding the highest increases in the daily frequency of consultations for Asthma/ARI, in relation to the averages of the entire period studied, was observed an association with the negatives anomalies of temperature and HTCI and positive anomalies of atmospheric pressure and RH during the day of the consultations and the three days previous to this, such situation may occur with the passage of a cold front and the presence of a system of high atmospheric pressure, showing, therefore, that wet cold is the most harmful condition to respiratory health. In the months with more respiratory complications, june and july, the days with the highest searches were associated, in relation to averages in this period, with positive RH anomalies (three days before to consultations), positive HTCI anomalies (two days before), negative wind direction anomalies (direction north to east, one day before), and on the day.