EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE ON INCIDENCE OF PREECLAMPSIA AND ECLAMPSIA

Background:Preeclampsia and eclampsia continue to be the one of leading causes of maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity worldwide. As global warming has become major concern all over the world ,there is need of studies to know its impact on womens health. Aim of this study is  To observe the effect of environmental temperature on incidence of preeclampsia and eclampsia.

Methods and Material: This is a comparitive study to know the effect of hot and cold months on incidence of preeclampsia and eclampsia , conducted in department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at a tertiary health centre . All the patients admitted in Labor room emergency were included in the study, making total number of 33,267 admissions in 47 months. All records of the patients admitted were reviewed. All the data were arranged month wise on Microsoft excel 2010∙Ink , and calculations were done on this spread sheet. Months were divided into two groups : Hot weather group[ N = 11] comprising of months with average maximum temperature >30ºC and Cold weather group[N=9] comprising of months with average maximum temperature ≤ 18ºC. Temperature range for Hot and Cold weather were in accordance with WHO.

Statistical analysis used: Statistic tests used were Chi-square.

Results: Of total admissions incidence of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia cases was 2.8%(927/33267).There was no significant effect of hot weather on incidence of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia cases (p > 0.05) while significant effect of cold weather was seen leading to increased incidence of pre-eclapmsia and eclampsia cases (p <0.05).

Conclusions: Trend of global warming warrants the need to study the effect of environmental changes on maternal health on large scale.