Does the weather influence dementia admissions?

Background. There is currently no literature on the relationship between we ather parameters and admissions of organic brain syndromes such as dementia s. In this present study we aimed to examine the effect of weather paramete rs such as relative humidity, sunshine hours, diurnal variations in tempera ture and rainfall on dementia admissions in North Cheshire. Method. Daily number of hospital admissions of dementias and other diagnose s in North Cheshire was analysed in relation to meteorological data, which were measured at the nearest meterological office to the study population. Results. The study found no evidence of any statistically significant assoc iation between weather parameters and dementia admissions. There was a weak , lagged inverse relationship between dementia admissions and relative humi dity and a positive association with diurnal variations in temperature with in a week of admission. However, neither finding achieved statistical signi ficance. Conclusion. The study is the first in currently available literature on the subject and may therefore provide a base reference for future studies. The interesting observation relating to relative humidity and diurnal variatio ns in temperature is unexpected and may suggest further research. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.