A research team led by Associate Professor Nobutoshi Naba of the Tokyo University of Science Graduate School analyzed nationwide data on hospitalizations due to intussusception in children under the age of five collected from 2011 to 2022, as well as temperature data from the Japan Meteorological Agency, and revealed that heat may increase the risk of intussusception in children.
Intussusception is one of the most common causes of abdominal emergencies in children. Delays in diagnosis and treatment can have serious consequences, so it is important to understand the risk factors. Previous studies have mainly relied on monthly or weekly analyses and often did not take into account potential confounding factors such as long-term trends and seasonality, and no study has examined the association between daily temperature and intussusception in children using large-scale nationwide data.
The study used data on approximately 12 cases over a 2011-year period (2022-1) extracted from a large-scale database of inpatients (DPC) collected from target hospitals nationwide, and analyzed data on hospitalization for intussusception in children (aged 5 or younger) during the five warmest months of the year (May to September) and temperature data from the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The results confirmed that heat increases the risk of intussusception in children, and in particular, exposure to extremely high daily mean temperatures (the 99th percentile, or 1°C, which corresponds to the top 1% of daily mean temperatures) was associated with a 30.7% increased risk of hospitalization.
As hot days become more frequent due to climate change, the number of patients with intussusception may increase, highlighting the importance of climate change measures from a public health perspective. In addition, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between high temperatures and intussusception, detailed studies of the mechanisms behind changes in diet and intestinal motility are required.
Paper information:[Pediatric Research] Association Between Heat Exposure and Intussusception in Children in Japan from 2011 to 2022
