Southern Adelaide Seasonality of Heart Admissions to Hospital

 

(A preliminary study in collaboration with Dr Andrew Russell,

Cardiologist Registrar at Repatriation General Hospital, Adelaide)

 

 

Mean daily admissions for myocardial infarctions and angina (derived from hospital admissions data from October 1987 to December 1992) show a peak and dip respectively in late winter / early spring.  There are many possible reasons for this seasonality. Several weather parameters hint at an association , however, the data are too noisy to provide any clear conclusion.  For example, the average maximum temperature for the same period is shown at the left-hand figure. At right is a similar plot against the absolute daily change in pressure – this would be an index of weather “changeability”.  Note that the data have been smoothed. Data courtesy of Flinders Medical Centre and Bureau of Meteorology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HeartAttackSouthernMaxTemp.pngHeartAttackSouthernIsallobars.png