RESEARCH - Influence of weather conditions on rheumatic pain

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J Rheumatol. 2002 Feb;29(2):335-8.

Influence of weather conditions on rheumatic pain.

Strusberg I, Mendelberg RC, Serra HA, Strusberg AM.

Centro Reumatológico Strusberg, Cordoba City, Cordoba, Argentina.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of the weather in Cordoba City,

Argentina, on pain in patients with rheumatic pain; to correlate

different climate variables with the patients' impression of weather

sensitivity; and to assess correlations between pain and climate

conditions on 5 days preceding and following painful episode.

METHODS: Self-reported questionnaires to assess the presence and

features of spontaneous daily pain during one year (1998) were

completed by 151 outpatients with osteoarthritis (OA) (n = 52),

rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n = 82), and fibromyalgia (FM) (n = 17) and

32 healthy subjects. Data were correlated with daily temperature,

atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity obtained during the same

period. Only p values < 0.001 were considered significant.

RESULTS: Low temperature, high atmospheric pressure, and high humidity

were significantly correlated with pain in RA (r = -0.30, r = 0.34, r

= 0.23, respectively; p < 0.001); in OA, pain correlated with low

temperature and high humidity (r = -0.23, r = 0.24; p < 0.001); in FM,

with low temperature and high atmospheric pressure (r = -0.255, r =

0.22; p < 0.001) and no correlation was found in controls. Patients

self-described as being weather sensitive correlated only with high

humidity (r = 0.45; p < 0.001). There was no better correlation with

climate variables, except for humidity, 5 days before or after the day

of the painful episode.

CONCLUSION: These results support the belief that weather influences

rheumatic pain, albeit in different ways depending on the subjacent

pathology and subjective weather sensitivity. This influence may not

depend on weather conditions of the previous or following days,

indicating that climate would not be a pain predictor and vice versa.

PMID: 11838853

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11838853

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