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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. |
