Seasonal variation in hospitalizations due to heart failure in Niterói city, Southeastern Brazil.
The objective of the study was to describe seasonality of hospitalizations for heart failure in tropical climate as it has been described in cold climates. Seasonal Auto-regressive Integrated Moving-Average model was applied to time-series data of heart failure hospitalizations between 1996 and 2004 in Niteroi (Southeastern Brazil), collected from the Brazilian National Health Service Database. The standard seasonal variation was obtained by means of moving-average filtering and averaging data. The lowest and the highest annual hospital admissions were 507 (1997) and 849 (2002), respectively; the lowest and the highest monthly rates were 419 (December) and 681 (October), respectively. Peak admission rates were seen during the fall and winter. Although weak, the seasonality observed indicates that slight variations result in increased hospitalizations for heart failure.
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Niterói, Brasil, RJ. profjoseduardo@gmail.com
Jose Eduardo Loureiro
JE
Jorge
Mauricio
M
Cagy
Evandro Tinoco
ET
Mesquita
Thiago L M da
TL
Costa
Samuel Datum
SD
Moscavitch
Maria Luiza Garcia
ML
Rosa
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012621:Seasons; D014329:Tropical Climate; D055815:Young Adult