RESEARCH - Does the weather really matter? Influences of weather and solar conditions on daily variations of joint pain in patients with RA

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Arthritis Rheum. 2009 Sep 15;61(9):1243-7.

Does the weather really matter? A cohort study of influences of

weather and solar conditions on daily variations of joint pain in

patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Smedslund G, Mowinckel P, Heiberg T, Kvien TK, Hagen KB.

National Resource Centre for Rehabilitation in Rheumatology,

Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway.

OBJECTIVE: To explore how reported joint pain in patients with

rheumatoid arthritis (RA) relates to weather and solar variables.

METHODS: A prospective cohort study was conducted in Norway on 36

patients with stable RA. Daily reports of pain in the morning on a

visual analog scale for 84 consecutive days were correlated (using

time-series methodology) with records of atmospheric and solar

variables for the same days.

RESULTS: Pain was significantly associated with 3 or more external

variables in 6 (17%) of the patients, with 1 or 2 external variables

in 16 (44%) of the patients, and no associations were observed in 14

(39%) of the patients. The multivariate model explained between 19%

and 64% of the variance in pain (R(2)) in the patients with

associations to at least 3 weather/solar variables. The patients

differed in the variables they responded to and in which direction,

except for consistent negative associations between pain and

ultraviolet light dose, and between pain and solar radio flux/sunspot

count. The associations were mostly with same-day weather, but also

lagged up to 3 days. We were not able to fit a statistically

significant model at the group level.

CONCLUSION: Weather sensitivity seems to be a continuum and a highly

individual phenomenon in patients with RA. In the present sample, pain

was significantly associated with 3 or more weather variables in 1 out

of 6 patients, for whom the magnitude of weather sensitivity might

significantly influence pain reporting in clinical care and research.

PMID: 19714599

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19714599

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