Associations between High Temperature, Heavy Rainfall, and Diarrhea among Young Children in Rural Tamil Nadu, India: A Prospective Cohort Study.
Environ Health Perspect
; 127(4): 47004, 2019 04.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30986088
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The effects of weather on diarrhea could influence the health impacts of climate change. Children have the highest diarrhea incidence, especially in India, where many lack safe water and sanitation.OBJECTIVES:
In a prospective cohort of 1,284 children under 5 y of age from 900 households across 25 villages in rural Tamil Nadu, India, we examined whether high temperature and heavy rainfall was associated with increased all-cause diarrhea and water contamination.METHODS:
Seven-day prevalence of diarrhea was assessed monthly for up to 12 visits from January 2008 to April 2009, and hydrogen sulfide ([Formula see text]) presence in drinking water, a fecal contamination indicator, was tested in a subset of households. We estimated associations between temperature and rainfall exposures and diarrhea and [Formula see text] using binomial regressions, adjusting for potential confounders, random effects for village, and autoregressive-1 error terms for study week.RESULTS:
There were 259 cases of diarrhea. The prevalence of diarrhea during the 7 d before visits was 2.95 times higher (95% CI 1.99, 4.39) when mean temperature in the week before the 7-d recall was in the hottest versus the coolest quartile of weekly mean temperature during 1 December 2007 to 15 April 2009. Diarrhea prevalence was 1.50 times higher when the 3 weeks before the diarrhea recall period included [Formula see text] (vs. 0 d) with rainfall of [Formula see text] (95% CI 1.12, 2.02), and 2.60 times higher (95% CI 1.55, 4.36) for heavy rain weeks following a 60-d dry period. The [Formula see text] prevalence in household water was not associated with heavy rain prior to sample collection.CONCLUSIONS:
The results suggest that, in rural Tamil Nadu, heavy rainfall may wash pathogens that accumulate during dry weather into child contact. Higher temperatures were positively associated with diarrhea 1-3 weeks later. Our findings suggest that diarrhea morbidity could worsen under climate change without interventions to reduce enteric pathogen transmission through multiple pathways. https//doi.org/10.1289/EHP3711.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Chuva
/
Poluição da Água
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Diarreia
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Temperatura Alta
Tipo de estudo:
Etiology_studies
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Observational_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Child, preschool
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Female
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Humans
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Infant
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Male
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Newborn
País/Região como assunto:
Asia
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article