Understanding Weather and Hospital Admissions Patterns to Inform Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Healthcare Sector in Uganda

Bishop-Williams, Katherine E.; Berrang‐Ford, Lea; Sargeant, Jan M.; Pearl, David L.; Lwasa, Shuaib; Namanya, Didacus B.; Edge, Victoria L.; Cunsolo, Ashlee; Huang, Yi; Ford, James D.; García, Patricia J.; Harper, Sherilee L.

doi:10.3390/ijerph15112402

Cited by 16 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Bad weather, such as extreme heat, rainy days and typhoons, may decrease the patients’ desire to go out and seek regular outpatient treatment [ 34 ]. Second, under adverse weather conditions, the rapidly increased number of patients availing medical treatment may lead to shortage of resource and further hinder other people to access healthcare services [ 35 ]. However, these theories seem to be insufficient to explain why changes in temperature and humidity affect the use of PT in Taiwan.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between weather and utilisation of physical therapy in patients with osteoarthritis: a case-crossover study

Pan

et al. 2022

BMC Musculoskelet Disord

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Background During varied weather conditions, patients with osteoarthritis experience different severity of symptoms and signs. However, weather may also cause barriers or incentives for patients to seek medical services. These factors may result in changes in medical utilisation; however, no studies have investigated whether the probability of physical therapy utilisation among patients with osteoarthritis is associated with changes in meteorological factors. Method By using a secondary data of NHID in Taiwan, we conducted a population-based, retrospective study with case-crossover design for patients initially diagnosed with osteoarthritis between 2000 and 2013. The meteorological factors of months with the lowest treatment rate were used as patients’ own control periods and compared with the parameters of months with high treatment frequency. The risk of exposure to different meteorological factors, including mean temperature, daily highest temperature, daily minimum temperature, diurnal temperature range, relative humidity, and barometric pressure, was estimated and represented by odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results A total of 8,130 patients were recruited. Regardless of univariate or multivariable analysis, increased daily highest temperature enhanced the frequency of physical therapy (OR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.02–1.05; p < 0.01; OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.04–1.10; p < 0.01). When the weather was hotter (> 23 °C), higher diurnal temperature range and humidity resulted in an increase in the utilisation of physical therapy. However, when the weather was colder (< 23 °C), reverse effects were observed. Conclusions An increase in temperature increases the probability of physical therapy resource use. Therefore, temperature, along with other meteorological factors, may play a key role in the utilization of physical therapy among patients with osteoarthritis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between weather and utilisation of physical therapy in patients with osteoarthritis: a case-crossover study

Pan

et al. 2022

BMC Musculoskelet Disord

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“…The disease burden in the local human community is high with over 10% mortality in under 5-year-old children [54]. The population around Bwindi has a high prevalence of infectious diseases where malaria, respiratory diseases and diarrhoea are very common [55]. Moreover, the majority of the diagnoses from the local hospital are human diseases that can also pose a threat to great apes [56,57].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Muylaert

Davidson

Ngabirano³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Cross-species transmission of pathogens is intimately linked to human and environmental health. With limited healthcare and challenging living conditions, people living in poverty may be particularly susceptible to endemic and emerging diseases. Similarly, wildlife is impacted by human influences, including pathogen sharing, especially for species in close contact with people and domesticated animals. Here we investigate human and animal contacts and human health in a community living around the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda. We used contact and health survey data to identify opportunities for cross-species pathogen transmission, focusing mostly on people and the endangered mountain gorilla. We conducted a survey with background questions and self-reported diaries to investigate 100 participants' health, such as symptoms and behaviours, and contact patterns, including direct contacts and sightings over a week. Contacts were revealed through networks, including humans, domestic, peri-domestic, and wild animals for 1) network of contacts seen in the week of background questionnaire completion, 2) network of contacts seen during the diary week. Participants frequently felt unwell during the study, reporting from one to 10 disease symptoms at different intensity levels (maximum of seven symptoms in one day), with severe symptoms comprising 6.4% of the diary records and tiredness and headaches the most common symptoms. Besides human-human contacts, direct contacts with livestock and peri-domestic animals were the most common. Wildlife contacts were the rarest, including one direct contact with gorilla with a concerning timeline of reported symptoms. The contact networks were moderately connected and revealing a preference in contacts within the same species or taxon and within their groups. Despite sightings of wildlife being much more common than touching, one participant declared direct contact with a mountain gorilla during the week. Gorillas were seen very close to six animal taxa (including themselves) considering all interaction types, mostly seen closer to other gorillas, but also people and domestic animals. Our findings reveal a local human population with recurrent symptoms of illness in a location with intense exposure to factors that can increase pathogen transmission, such as direct contact with domestic and wild animals and proximity among animal species. Despite significant biases and study limitations, the information generated here can guide future studies, such as models for disease spread and One Health interventions.

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“…The disease burden in the local human community is high with over 10% mortality in under 5-year-old children [ 58 ]. The population around Bwindi has a high prevalence of infectious diseases where malaria, respiratory diseases and diarrhoea are the most diagnosed in the Bwindi community hospital [ 59 ]. Moreover, the majority of the local diagnoses are human diseases that can also pose a threat to great apes [ 60 , 61 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Muylaert

Davidson

Ngabirano³

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

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Cross-species transmission of pathogens is intimately linked to human and environmental health. With limited healthcare and challenging living conditions, people living in poverty may be particularly susceptible to endemic and emerging diseases. Similarly, wildlife is impacted by human influences, including pathogen sharing, especially for species in close contact with people and domesticated animals. Here we investigate human and animal contacts and human health in a community living around the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda. We used contact and health survey data to identify opportunities for cross-species pathogen transmission, focusing mostly on people and the endangered mountain gorilla. We conducted a survey with background questions and self-reported diaries to investigate 100 participants’ health, such as symptoms and behaviours, and contact patterns, including direct contacts and sightings over a week. Contacts were revealed through networks, including humans, domestic, peri-domestic, and wild animal groups for 1) contacts seen in the week of background questionnaire completion, and 2) contacts seen during the diary week. Participants frequently felt unwell during the study, reporting from one to 10 disease symptoms at different intensity levels, with severe symptoms comprising 6.4% of the diary records and tiredness and headaches the most common symptoms. After human-human contacts, direct contact with livestock and peri-domestic animals were the most common. The contact networks were moderately connected and revealed a preference in contacts within the same taxon and within their taxa groups. Sightings of wildlife were much more common than touching. However, despite contact with wildlife being the rarest of all contact types, one direct contact with a gorilla with a timeline including concerning participant health symptoms was reported. When considering all interaction types, gorillas mostly exhibited intra-species contact, but were found to interact with five other species, including people and domestic animals. Our findings reveal a local human population with recurrent symptoms of illness in a location with intense exposure to factors that can increase pathogen transmission, such as direct contact with domestic and wild animals and proximity among animal species. Despite significant biases and study limitations, the information generated here can guide future studies, such as models for disease spread and One Health interventions.

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Understanding Weather and Hospital Admissions Patterns to Inform Climate Change Adaptation Strategies in the Healthcare Sector in Uganda

Cited by 16 publications

References 49 publications

Association between weather and utilisation of physical therapy in patients with osteoarthritis: a case-crossover study

Association between weather and utilisation of physical therapy in patients with osteoarthritis: a case-crossover study

Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Community health and human-animal contacts on the edges of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

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