Correlation between weather and incidence of selected ophthalmological diagnoses: a database analysis.
OBJECTIVE
Our aim was to correlate the overall patient volume and the incidence of several ophthalmological diseases in our emergency department with weather data.


METHODS
For data analysis, we used our clinical data warehouse and weather data. We investigated the weekly overall patient volume and the average weekly incidence of all encoded diagnoses of "conjunctivitis", "foreign body", "acute iridocyclitis", and "corneal abrasion". A Spearman's correlation was performed to link these data with the weekly average sunshine duration, temperature, and wind speed.


RESULTS
We noticed increased patient volume in correlation with increasing sunshine duration and higher temperature. Moreover, we found a positive correlation between the weekly incidences of conjunctivitis and of foreign body and weather data.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this data analysis reveal the possible influence of external conditions on the health of a population and can be used for weather-dependent resource allocation.
University Eye Hospital Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Christoph
C
Kern
University Eye Hospital Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Karsten
K
Kortüm
University Eye Hospital Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Michael
M
Müller
University Eye Hospital Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Florian
F
Raabe
University Eye Hospital Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Wolfgang Johann
WJ
Mayer
University Eye Hospital Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Siegfried
S
Priglinger
University Eye Hospital Munich, Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Thomas Christian
TC
Kreutzer
conjunctivitis; corneal injury; trauma; uveitis; weather