Objectives: To identify the relationship between temperature variation between neighbouring days (TVN) and hospital visits for childhood asthma in age- and sex-specific groups. Study design: An ecological design was used to explore the effect of TVN on hospital visits for childhood asthma. Methods: A Poisson generalised linear regression model combined with a distributed lag non-linear model was used to analyse the association between TVN and hospital visits for childhood asthma. All hospital visits for childhood asthma from June 2010 to July 2013 were included (n = 17,022). Daily climate data were obtained from Hefei Meteorological Bureau. Results: A significant correlation was found between TVN and hospital visits for childhood asthma in age- and sex-specific groups. For different gender groups, the effect of TVN on childhood asthma was the greatest at 3 and 5 days lag for males and females. For different age groups, the effect of TVN on childhood asthma was the greatest at 1 and 5 days lag for 0-4 years and 5-14 years children, respectively. A 1 degrees C increase in TVN was associated with a 4.2% (95% confidence interval 0.9-7.6%) increase in hospital visits for childhood asthma. Conclusions: TVN is associated with hospital visits for childhood asthma. Once the temperature change rapidly, guardians will be urged to pay more attention to their children's health, which may reduce the morbidity of childhood asthma. (C) 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.