THE EFFECT OF WEATHER TYPES ON THE FREQUENCY OF CHILDHOOD ASTHMA ADMISSIONS IN ATHENS, GREECE

SUMMARY The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of weather conditions on the number of admissions for childhood asthma in Athens, Greece. Daily counts of child-hood asthma admissions (2764) of the three main Chil-dren’s Hospitals in Athens, from hospital registries during a 3-year period (2001-2003), were obtained. The meteoro-logical data reviewed consists of daily values of 20 pa-rameters recorded at the National Observatory of Athens during the study period: maximum temperature (T max ); minimum temperature (T min ); mean temperature (T mean ); diurnal temperature range (T range = T max – T min ); day-to-day change in maximum temperature (∆T max ); day-to-day change in minimum temperature (∆T min ); day-to-day change in mean temperature (∆T mean ); day-to-day change in diurnal temperature range (∆T range ); mean relative humidity (RH); day-to-day change in mean relative humidity (∆RH); mean water vapor pressure (e); day-to-day change in mean water vapor pressure (∆e); mean atmospheric pressure at sea level (P); day-to-day change in mean atmospheric pressure (∆P); mean irradiance (I); day-to-day change in mean irradiance (∆I); mean sunshine (S); day-to-day change in mean sun-shine (∆S); mean wind speed (v) and day-to-day change in mean wind speed (∆v). The performed statistical methods were: (i) Pearson’s χ