8/13/2019 Weather and Pain

1/4

Often I have patients who claim they can predict the weather or that their pain isinfluenced by the weather. I often assumed that the patient was seeing a correlationthat didnt really exist possibly because they have been told by others that weatherinfluences joint pain. This subject, even in the area of research is controversial.Results of students have shown connections while others show no affect. I decided tosee what some of the research says.

rom what I have learned from some of my research is as follows!". #ow temperature more often has some affect on pain $osteoarthritis, rheumatoidarthritis%&. #ow temperature ma'e those () * +( year olds are "( more li'ely to experienceR- pain

. Relative humidity significant association with hand osteoarthritis pain/. -bsolute change in atmospheric pressure is associated with pain.(. #imited evidence between fibromyalgia and weather conditionsI admit this isnt not an exhaustive study of the subject but it is food for thought. eel

free and read the abstracts found below0r 1otleyInfluence of weather on osteoarthritis of the hands2ac'ground! The aim of this wor' was to investigate the association betweenmeteorological variables and pain, stiffness, and function of the hand in patients withosteoarthritis.3ethods! The survey was carried out over & months in &))4, covering 5uly and1ovember. The patients filled out a 6uestionnaire, consisting of visual analoguescales covering the three categories of symptoms that primarily determine thesituation with rheumatism of the hands! function, joint stiffness, and pain. The

6uestionnaire was completed on 3onday, 7ednesday, and riday for every wee' in 5uly and every wee' in 1ovember. The meteorological variables recorded includedatmospheric pressure, air temperature, relative humidity of the air, and precipitation.

The climate records were chec'ed against the variables of functional evaluation ofthe hands from each patient using bivariate analysis and multiple regression analysis.Results! In general, air temperature and relative humidity were the variables thatdisplayed statistically significant higher association in all evaluated aspects of thehands, being explained by the influence of temperature in /)899 $r% and relativehumidity in 489( $r%. In the multivariate analysis, there was a reduction in thenumber of weather variables that influenced pain. The variation of pain was explainedby the average atmospheric pressure of the day of the 6uestionnaire and thetemperature the day before and the day after the 6uestionnaire $(&899 :R&;%.

8/13/2019 Weather and Pain

2/4

#ydia -basolo, -urelio Tob=as , #eticia #eon, #oreto 8Rueda, -na 2elen Rodrigue>, 2enjamin ernande>8?utierre>, 5uan -ngel 5overObjective! @atients with rheumatoid arthritis $R-% complain that weather conditionsaggravate their symptoms. 7e investigated the short8term effects of weatherconditions on worsening of R- and determined possible seasonal fluctuations.3ethods! 7e conducted a case8cross over study in 3adrid, Apain. 0aily cases of R-flares were collectedfrom the emergency room of a tertiary level hospital between &))/ and &))B.Results!&/( R- patients who visited the emergency room )+ times due to R- relatedcomplaints as the main diagnostic reason were included in the study. @atients from ()to +( years old were "+ more li'ely to present a flare with lower meantemperatures.

8/13/2019 Weather and Pain

3/4

-lthough patients with fibromyalgia often report that specific weather conditionsaggravate their symptoms, empirical studies have not conclusively demonstratedsuch a relationship. Our aim was to examine the association between weatherconditions and daily symptoms of pain and fatigue in fibromyalgia, and to identifypatient characteristics explaining individual differences in weather sensitivity.3ethods

emale patients with fibromyalgia $n H , mean age /B.) years, mean time sincediagnosis .( years% completed 6uestions on pain and fatigue on &9 consecutivedays. 0aily weather conditions, including air temperature, sunshine duration,precipitation, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity, were obtained from theRoyal 1etherlands 3eteorological Institute. 3ultilevel regression analysis was applied.ResultsIn ( $") % of () analyses, weather variables showed a significant but small effect oneither pain or fatigue. In ") analyses $&) %, significant, small differences betweenpatients were observed in the random effects of the weather variables, suggesting

that symptoms of patients were, to a small extent, differentially affected by someweather conditions, for example, high pain with either low or high atmosphericpressure. These individual differences were explained neither by demographic,functional, or mental patient characteristics, nor by season or weather variationduring the assessment period.e that this belief results, in part at least, from peoples tendency toperceive patterns where none exist. 7e studied patients $n H "9% for more than I yearand found no statistically significant associations between their arthritis pain and theweather conditions implicated by each individual. 7e also found that college students$n H 4B% tend to perceive correlations between uncorrelated random se6uences. Thisdeparture of peoples intuitive notion of association from the statistical concept ofassociation, we suggest, contributes to the belief that arthritis pain is influenced bythe weather..Does rain really cause pain) systematic review of the associationsbetween weather factors and severity of pain in people with rheumatoidarthritis*Amedslund ?, Cagen J2.

8/13/2019 Weather and Pain

4/4

O25Fed the data on an aggregated $group%level with a meta8analysis of correlations between pain and weather, and at anindividual level as the proportion of patients for whom pain was significantly affectedby the weather.RFAK#TA!1ine studies were included. 3any different weather variables have been studied, butonly three $temperature, relative humidity and atmospheric pressure% have beenstudied extensively. Overall group level analyses show that associations between painand these three variables are close to >ero. Individual analyses from two studies

indicate that pain reporting in a minority $L&( % of R- patients is influenced bytemperature, relative humidity or atmospheric pressure. 7e were not able to relatethe findings to methodological 6uality or other aspects of the studies.