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R.-Y. Wu1,2, R.-H. Pan3,4, C.-Y. Wu5, C.-L. Chan5,6, H.-J. Yeh1,7
1Taoyuan General Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 2National Yang-Ming University, Department of Physical Therapy and Assistive Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, 3Tunghai University, Department of Information Management, Taichung, Taiwan, 4Yuan Ze University, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 5Yuan Ze University, Department of Information Management, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 6Yuan Ze University, Innovation Center for Big Data and Digital Convergence, Taoyuan, Taiwan, 7National Yang-Ming University, Department of Public Health & Medical Humanities, Institute of Public Health, Taipei, Taiwan
Background: In clinic, people with osteoarthritis (OA) usually mentioned that during weather changes, the intensity of joint stiffness or pain increased. It is still unclear which meteorological factors will result in the aggravation of OA symptoms.
Purpose: To investigate whether exacerbations of clinical symptoms in people with (OA) were associated with changes in meteorological factors.
Methods: A retrospective study with case-crossover design was conducted. We analyzed representative database of 1 million patients. Patients who were initially diagnosed with OA during 2000-2013 and aged >20 years were included. We defined that increased frequency of physiotherapy represented patients experienced greater discomfort. Highest temperature, temperature difference, relative humidity, and barometric pressure during the treatment period were collected and stratification of temperature that used the mean temperature as a cut-off point was analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to present the general information of patients and meteorological factors. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were assessed using conditional logistic regression.
Results: A total of 8130 patients were recruited. Regardless of univariate or multivariate analysis, increased daily highest temperature led to enhance frequency of physiotherapy (OR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.02-1.05; p<0.01/OR: 1.06; 95% CI: 1.03-1.09; p<0.01). When the weather is hotter (>23°C), higher daily temperature differences and humidity resulted in an increase in OA symptoms. However, when the weather was colder (<23°C), reverse effects were observed.
Conclusion(s): In our study, increases in temperature may aggravate clinical symptoms in people with OA. During hot weather, increases in temperature differences and humidity will result in greater discomfort in patients. More studies are required to prove the effects of various meteorological factors on OA symptoms under different temperature conditions.
Implications: Temperature may play a key role that can not only make greater discomfort in patients, but also affect the effects of other meteorological factors on OA symptoms.
Funding, acknowledgements: We would like to thank the Yuan Ze University for providing meteorological data and National Health Insurance Database.
Keywords: Osteoarthritis, Weather, Case-crossover
Topic: Innovative technology: information management, big data and artificial intelligence
Did this work require ethics approval? Yes
Institution: Taoyuan General Hospital
Committee: The Institutional Review Boards of the Hospital
Ethics number: TYGH105040
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
