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  • Population Study Article
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Association between heat exposure and intussusception in children in Japan from 2011 to 2022

Pediatric Research volume 98, pages 871–875 (2025)Cite this article

A Comment to this article was published on 23 May 2025

Abstract

Background

Exposure to heat may increase the risk of intussusception through various mechanisms, including alterations in dietary intake. However, no nationwide studies have examined the association between daily heat exposure and intussusception in children. This study aims to examine the association between higher daily ambient temperatures and intussusception in children.

Methods

The daily number of intussusception hospitalizations among children up to 5 years old from 2011 to 2022 was extracted from Japan’s nationwide administrative claims database. Daily mean temperature data were obtained from the Japan Meteorological Agency. Since the focus is on heat exposure, the analysis examines hospitalizations that occurred during the five warmest months (May to September). A time-stratified case-crossover design with conditional quasi-Poisson regression analysis was applied to estimate the relative risk of heat exposure on intussusception with a lag of 0–4 days.

Results

There were 13,083 cases of intussusception hospitalizations. Higher daily mean temperatures were associated with an elevated risk of intussusception hospitalizations. Specifically, exposure to extremely high daily mean temperatures at the 99th percentile was associated with a 39% increase in hospitalization risk (95% CI: 1.05, 1.83).

Conclusion

The study found the association between higher daily mean temperatures and an increased risk of hospitalization for intussusception. Future research should clarify the mechanisms of the association between higher daily mean temperatures and the increased risk of intussusception hospitalizations.

Impact

  • While exposure to heat may increase the risk of intussusception through mechanisms such as alterations in dietary intake and intestinal motility, no nationwide studies have investigated the association between daily heat exposure and intussusception in children.

  • The study found the association between higher daily mean temperatures and an increased risk of hospitalization for intussusception.

  • Both caregivers and healthcare providers should be aware of a potential increase in pediatric intussusception cases during warmer days, which may become even more critical as climate change results in more frequent and severe heat events.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2: Association between daily mean temperatures and hospitalization for intussusception in children up to 5 years of age.

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Data availability

Meteorological data are available from the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) website.26 The hospitalization data cannot be made available due to confidentiality restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

During the preparation of this work, the authors used ChatGPT to improve the readability and language of the manuscript. After utilizing this tool, the authors reviewed and edited the content as necessary and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.

Funding

This work was supported by Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development (SATREPS) in collaboration between Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST, JPMJSA2402) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The funders had no involvement in the research or the preparation of the paper, including the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, writing of the paper, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Nobutoshi Nawa, Hisaaki Nishimura & Takeo Fujiwara

  2. Department of Health Policy and Informatics, Institute of Science Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Kiyohide Fushimi

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  1. Nobutoshi Nawa
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  2. Hisaaki Nishimura
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  3. Kiyohide Fushimi
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  4. Takeo Fujiwara
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Contributions

N.N., H.N., and T.F. conceptualized the study. All authors contributed to data curation. N.N. performed the formal analysis, interpreted the results, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors critically reviewed and revised the first draft. All authors approved the final draft of the manuscript. Additionally, all authors had full access to all the data in the study and bear final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication. The corresponding author attests that all listed authors meet the authorship criteria and that no one meeting the criteria has been omitted.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nobutoshi Nawa.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Consent statement

This study was approved by the Medical Research Ethics Committee at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (Institute of Science Tokyo). Patient consent was not required.

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Nawa, N., Nishimura, H., Fushimi, K. et al. Association between heat exposure and intussusception in children in Japan from 2011 to 2022. Pediatr Res 98, 871–875 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-03930-4

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