Study: Weather Influences Pain of Arthritis

Weather conditions may have an influence on the pain of arthritis, according to researchers at the Centero Reumatologico Strusberg in Cordoba City, Argentina.

Researchers developed a study to evaluate the influence of weather on rheumatic pain by correlating different climate variables with the patients' impression of weather sensitivity.

A total of 151 patients with osteoarthritis (52), rheumatoid arthritis (82) and fibromyalgia (17) completed questionnaires used to assess the presence and features of spontaneous daily pain over the course of one year (1998). Thirty-two healthy participants also completed the survey. The data was correlated with daily temperature, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity during the same period.

Investigators found that low temperature, high atmospheric pressure and high humidity were significantly linked with pain in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Osteoarthritis pain was worse during periods of low temperature and high humidity. Fibromyaligia pain was more severe during days of low temperature and high atmospheric pressure.

There was no pain-weather correlation found in the control group, the researchers reported in the Journal of Rheumatology.

Researchers concluded that weather does influence the pain of arthritis, but the 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.

Other sources: Journal of Rheumatology