Relationship between meteorological change and joint pain in a group of individuals
Abstract
Introduction: Joint pain can be influenced by obesity, sedentary lifestyle, rheumatic conditions, or previous joint surgeries, but many people often attribute increased joint pain to changing weather patterns. There are even individuals who claim that they can predict weather changes by their symptoms.
Materials and method: observational, cross-sectional, analytical study. A survey documenting clinical variables (i.e. age, pathological history) and data related to pain and meteorological changes that could be associated with pain were documented. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed. The association between the presence of pain prior to or during the meteorological change and associated factors, was evaluated by nX2 test and the OR with its respective CI. Values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.
Results: 147 individuals were included, 59.9% (88/147) of the respondents were female. The respondents were divided into two groups, young adult and mature adult, according to an age range. Forty six percent belonged to the young adult group and 53.74% to the ma- ture adult group. A total of 39.46% (58/147) reported pain before a meteorological change. Of the patients who reported pain, 55.5% (32/58)reported the knee as the most frequent area of pain. There was no statistically significant association between the presence of pain prior to a specific meteorological change
(i.e. temperature variation or the presence of rain). However, an association was observed between the presence of pain prior to temperature change and mature adult age group (p=0.008, OR=0.398 CI= 0.20-0.79). No association was found between the presence of pain and other clinical characteristics reported by the respondents.
Conclusion: The majority of respondents in the older adult group perceived joint pain prior to a change in the weather. The mature adult group manifested some pain more frequently. The young adult group mostly did not report pain prior to weather change.
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