Winter classification of air masses and weather types for the forecasting of hospital admissions for myocardial infarction in Florence, Italy

Recently, interest in the impact of the weather and climate of human health has become an issue of much greater significance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the risk of hospital admission for myocardial infarction and daily weather conditions, according to a synoptic climatological approach. Data for daily admissions for myocardial infarction was provided by the Administration of Careggi Hospital in Florence for the period 1998-2002. Hourly meteorological data were obtained from a urban weather station located in the city centre of Florence managed by the Regional Office for Environmental Protection in Tuscany. The analyses was concentrated on winter season, when the maximum peak of hospitalization for myocardial infarction occurred. A principal component analysis and a successive clustering technique was applied to identify typical air masses characteristics of the Florentine area. A regression analyses was made to evaluate the relationships between weather types and hospital admissions. These surveys have provided interesting results that could represent the first step for the development of an operative watch/warning system forecasting days at high risk of hospitalization for myocardial infarction.