African dust clouds are associated with increased paediatric asthma accident and emergency admissions on the Caribbean island of Trinidad

Objective: To determine if there is any association between paediatric Accident & Emergency (A&E) asthma admissions and Saharan dust cloud cover Methods: A retrospective ecological study of paediatric asthma patients who attended the A&E department of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in relation to Saharan dust visibility andother climactic variables for the period May 23 2001 to May 13 2002. A quasi-likelihood approach was used to develop a statistical model for the relationship between acute paediatric asthma A&Evisits and Saharan dust cover.Results: 2655 A&E visits for acute asthma during the study period. There were significant associations between paediatric admissions and two climate variables; Saharan dust levels (p <0.05)and barometric pressure (p <0.01). In the absence of dust however, barometric pressure by itself hadno predictive power. Dust cover & barometric pressure were most strongly associated with increased admissions the day after dust cover Conclusions: Saharan dust cloud cover over Trinidad was associated with an increase inpaediatric asthma A&E visits on the following day. The dust effect was strongly influenced by prevailing barometric pressure; heavy dust cover and low pressure were most strongly associated with increased acute asthma visits.

African dust clouds are associated with increased paediatric asthma accident and emergency admissions on the Caribbean island of Trinidad.

A retrospective ecological study of paediatric asthma patients who attended the Accident and Emergency (A and E) department of the Paediatric Priority Care Facility at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex in relation to Saharan dust visibility and other climatic variables for the period 23 May 2001 to 13 May 2002 was undertaken to determine if there is an association between paediatric A and E asthma visits and Saharan dust cloud cover. A Poisson regression model was used to determine the statistical relationship between acute paediatric asthma A and E visits and Saharan dust cover with and without other variables such as climatic parameters and month. During the study period, there were 2,655 A and E visits for acute asthma. There was an association between increased paediatric asthma admissions and increased Saharan dust cover. The best fitting model estimated that in one month, such as June, a deterioration of visibility due to increased Saharan dust cover from no dust (visibility =16 km) to very dusty (visibility =7 km) would increase a daily admission rate of 7.8 patients to 9.25 when climate variables such as barometric pressure and humidity were kept constant.