Seasonal variation of patulous Eustachian tube diagnoses using climatic and national health insurance data.
J Laryngol Otol
; 135(8): 695-701, 2021 Aug.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34238392
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
This study aimed to analyse if there were any associations between patulous Eustachian tube occurrence and climatic factors and seasonality.METHODS:
The correlation between the monthly average number of patients diagnosed with patulous Eustachian tube and climatic factors in Seoul, Korea, from January 2010 to December 2016, was statistically analysed using national data sets.RESULTS:
The relative risk for patulous Eustachian tube occurrence according to season was significantly higher in summer and autumn, and lower in winter than in spring (relative risk (95 per cent confidence interval) 1.334 (1.267-1.404), 1.219 (1.157-1.285) and 0.889 (0.840-0.941) for summer, autumn and winter, respectively). Temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity had a moderate positive (r = 0.648), negative (r = -0.601) and positive (r = 0.492) correlation with the number of patulous Eustachian tube cases, respectively.CONCLUSION:
The number of patulous Eustachian tube cases was highest in summer and increased in proportion to changes in temperature and humidity, which could be due to physiological changes caused by climatic factors or diet trends.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Ear Diseases
/
Eustachian Tube
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Asia
Language:
En
Journal:
J Laryngol Otol
Year:
2021
Document type:
Article