A comparison of the effect of weather and climate on emergency department visitation in Roanoke and Charlottesville, Virginia.

ABSTRACT: Compared with mortality, the impact of weather and climate on human morbidity is less well understood, especially in the cold season. We examined the relationships between weather and emergency department (ED) visitation at hospitals in Roanoke and Charlottesville, Virginia, two locations with similar climates and population demographic profiles. Using patient-level data obtained from electronic medical records, each patient who visited the ED was linked to that day's weather from one of 8 weather stations in the region based on each patient's ZIP code of residence. The resulting 2010-2017 daily ED visit time series were examined using a distributed lag non-linear model to account for the concurrent and lagged effects of weather. Total ED visits were modeled separately for each location al

SUBMITTER: Davis RE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7658034 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature