Differentiating the impact of ambient temperature on hospitalization due to cause-specific pneumonias: an individual-level, case-crossover study

Introduction Associations between exposure to ambient temperature and the risks of hospital admission for overall or a specific type of pneumonia were reported in prior studies. However, few studies have systematically explored the potentially differential impacts of ambient temperature on hospitalization for cause-specific pneumonias. Methods We performed a time-stratified, case-crossover study based on individual-level pneumonia-related hospital data with pathogen identification results in Shanghai, the largest metropolis in China from 2013 to 2019. Conditional logistic regression combined with distributed lag non-linear model was used to estimate effects of extreme temperature. Results We included a total of 6,277 hospitalized cases of pneumonias with various causes. The observed exposure-response curve for the association between temperature and pneumonias was nonlinear, with significantly elevated risks in high temperature. The hot-related risk appeared on lag 0–1 day, and became non-significant on lag 5–10 day, with differential lag patterns in various subtypes of pneumonias. Extreme high temperature exhibited the largest effect estimate in hospitalization from infectious pneumonia [relative risk: 2.55, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.58, 4.13], followed by bacterial pneumonia (2.16, 95% CI, 1.15, 4.04), and total pneumonia (1.96, 95% CI, 1.40, 2.74). Stronger relationships were observed in females in stratified analyses. The effect estimates remain robust after adjusting for air pollutants and various model parameters. Discussion As pneumonias cause a huge disease burden worldwide, our study adds heat-related risk assessments on hospitalization due to cause-specific pneumonias, which is beneficial for prevention and management of patients with specific subtypes of pneumonia in urban areas.