Rainfall-Associated Bronchospasm Epidemics: The Epidemiological Effects of Air Pollutants and Weather Variables

Table 1

A Comparison of the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients in the case and control group during 2011–2015.

Variables	Groups	Epidemic group patient’s (%)	Patients attending at other times (%)	OR	95% CI	value
Gender	Male	2445 (46.1%)	421 (46.0%)	1.004	0.873–1.156	0.951
	Female	2862 (53.9%)	495 (54.0%)
Age	<20	398 (7.5%)	64 (7.0%)	1.079	0.821–1.419	0.585
	>20	4909 (92.5%)	852 (93.0%)
Asthma history	Yes	2215 (41.7%)	447 (48.8%)	0.752	0.653–0.865	<0.001^†
	No	3092 (58.3%)	469 (51.2%)
Allergic reaction history	Yes	667 (12.6%)	109 (11.9%)	1.064	0.858–1.321	0.572
	No	4640 (87.4%)	807 (88.1%)
Drug history for asthma	Yes	2084 (39.3%)	374 (40.8%)	0.937	0.812–1.081	0.372
	No	3223 (60.7%)	542 (59.2%)
Smoking	Yes	3422 (64.5%)	528 (57.6%)	1.334	1.157–1.539	<0.001^†
	No	1885 (35.5%)	388 (42.4%)
Final decision	Hospitalization	487 (9.2%)	55 (6.0%)	1.582	1.186–2.110	0.002^†
	Discharge	4820 (90.8%)	861 (94.0%)
Recurrence	Yes	4050 (76.3%)	684 (74.7%)	1.093	0.930–1.285	0.282
	No	1257 (23.7%)	232 (25.3%)
Wheezing	Yes	1654 (31.2%)	263 (28.7%)	1.124	0.963–1.312	0.137
	No	3653 (68.8%)	653 (71.3%)
Dyspnea	Yes	5209 (98.2%)	900 (98.3%)	0.945	0.554–1.611	0.835
		98 (1.8%)	16 (1.7%)
Cough	Yes	3297 (62.1%)	583 (63.6%)	0.937	0.810–1.084	0.380
	No	2010 (37.9%)	333 (36.4%)
Sputum	Yes	861 (16.2%)	201 (21.9%)	0.689	0.580–.819	<0.001^†
	No	4446 (83.8%)	715 (78.1%)

cough variant asthma.