Correlation between the occurrence of acute gastroenteritis in children and regional temperature at a tertiary hospital emergency department in Korea

Abstract

Purpose Several studies have investigated the association between acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and regional temperatures. We aimed to investigate the correlation between the occurrence of AGE and regional temperature in Korean children. Methods We reviewed the clinical characteristics of children aged 18 years or younger with AGE, defined according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision codes, who visited a Korean tertiary hospital emergency department (ED) between 2006 and 2016, and compared the children who were discharged from the ED and those who were hospitalized. Data on temperature in Seoul, Korea during the period were obtained from the Korea Meteorological Administration. Subsequently, we assessed correlations between the monthly mean numbers of the children with AGE and monthly mean temperature using Pearson’s correlation analysis. Results A total of 31,931 children with AGE visited the ED. Vomiting was the most common manifestation (62.0%). Fever, chills, cough, and sputum were more frequent in the hospitalized children (P < 0.05). Hospitalization rate was highest (2.7%) and monthly mean temperature was lowest (-2.4。C) in January. We observed negative correlations between the monthly mean numbers of the children with AGE and the monthly mean temperature (for ED visit, r = -0.845; for hospitalization, r = -0.923). Conclusion Children with AGE tend to visit the ED, and undergo hospitalization during the cold weather. This finding could help the guardians to expect the occurrence of AGE, and physicians to facilitate the allocation of resources for emergency medicine in winter.

Keywords

• association
• child
• epidemiology
• gastroenteritis
• korea
• temperature