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Int J Biometeorol (2014) 58:20112024 DOI 10.1007/s00484-014-0797-5
REVIEW
Impact of diurnal temperature range on human health: a systematic review
Jian Cheng & Zhiwei Xu & Rui Zhu & Xu Wang & Liu Jin &
Jian Song & Hong Su
Received: 1 August 2013 /Revised: 18 January 2014 /Accepted: 23 January 2014 /Published online: 18 February 2014 # ISB 2014
Abstract Increasing epidemiological studies have shown that a rapid temperature change within 1 day is an independent risk factor for human health. This paper aimed to systematically review the epidemiological evidence on the relationship between diurnal temperature range (DTR) and human health and to propose future research directions. A literature search was conducted in October 2013 using the databases including PubMed, ScienceDirect, and EBSCO. Empirical studies regarding the relationship between DTR and mortality and morbidity were included. Twenty-five relevant studies were identified, among which, 11 investigated the relationship between DTR and mortality and 14 examined the impact of DTR on morbidity. The majority of existing studies reported that DTR was significantly associated with mortality and morbidity, particularly for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Notably, compared with adults, the elderly and children were more vulnerable to DTR effects. However, there were some inconsistencies regarding the susceptible groups, lag time, and threshold of DTR. The impact of DTR on human health may be confounded or modified by season, socioeconomic, and educational status. Further research is needed to further confirm the adverse effects of DTR in different geographical locations; examine the effects of DTR on the health of
children aged one or under; explore extreme DTR effects on human health; analyze the difference of DTR effects on human health in different locations and the modified effects of potential confounding factors; and develop detailed preventive measures against large DTR, particularly for susceptible groups.
Keywords Climate change . DTR . Morbidity . Mortality
Introduction
Climate change is affecting and will increasingly influence human health (Kjellstrom and McMichael 2013). As projected by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2007), global surface average temperature will increase by 1.84.0 C by the end of this century. The association between increased temperature and adverse health outcomes (e.g., cardiovascular and respiratory diseases) has been extensively studied (Baccini et al. 2008; Lin et al. 2009; Lin et al....