Introduction:

Temperature changes damage the immune system and promote the onset of respiratory diseases. The objective of this research is to determine the effect of temperature on influenza and pneumonia according to meteorological and environmental factors in Medellín, Colombia children under five years old, between 2008 and 2015.

Materials and methods:

An ecological study of time series with secondary information sources. Generalized Additive Models were constructed, with a Poisson link function to determine the opportunity to fall ill with influenza and pneumonia with distributed lag techniques, for temperature increases.

Results:

When adjusted meteorological and environmental factors, the temperature was significantly associated with daily cases of influenza and pneumonia: an increase of 8.0% on the day of exposure for each 1°C increase and 50.0% if the increase were 5°C.

Discussion:

The opportunity to get sick increased in the specific lag, most research agrees that short delays from 0 to 3 days allow modeling the significance of high temperatures and long delays have significant effects at low temperatures. Conclusion: Quantifying the effect of temperature on influenza and pneumonia is crucial for the development of health strategies.

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