A MODEL OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSULTATION BEHAVIOR FOR ASTHMA IN A GENERAL-PRACTICE AND THE WEATHER

The aim of this study was to build a model showing the relationship be tween consultations for asthma and the daily weather in a suburban com puterised general practice in New Zealand. A retrospective count of th e number of asthmatic patients attending the practice on any particula r day for a consultation for asthma was compared with the weather vari ables temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, and wind strength. Qua si-likelihood Poisson regression models were built in steps. There wer e 3844 consultations for asthma between October 1, 1986 and October 30 , 1991. The number varied from 0 to 11 consultations per day (mean 2.1 ). The annual means were 1.3, 1.9, 2.3, 2.5, and 2.7 consultations per day, respectively. After variables indicating time trends, days of th e week, and holiday periods were included in the model, temperature an d relative humidity provided the only significant additional explanato ry power for variation in consultations.