Decreased childhood asthma hospitalizations linked to hotter, drier climate with lower wind speed in drylands

Climate change poses a significant threat to human health. Long-term climate effects on childhood asthma hospitalizations depend on the population’s geographic region. These effects in tropical drylands are not well understood. The objective of this study is to examine the long-term association between childhood asthma hospitalizations and the climate of a tropical dryland. The study covered 14 municipalities in the Brazilian semiarid. Monthly trends in hospitalizations and climatic variables were calculated. A generalized additive model analyzed the association between these trends, and the Mann-Kendall test determined if trends were increasing, decreasing, or not significant. Thirteen municipalities showed a significant link between hospitalizations and climate variables, especially wind speed, maximum temperature, and humidity. Overall, hospitalizations decreased, correlating with decreasing wind speed and humidity, and increasing temperature. However, no discernable pattern was found between hospitalizations and precipitation. The study emphasizes the need for climate-health analysis to manage childhood asthma amid climate change.