The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between average monthly temperatures and precipitation with the number of patients suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain referred to physical therapy.
The study was retrospective and patient consent was not applied for this research.
Τhe data were collected from the Physiotherapy Department of the 401 Army Hospital of Athens and concerned the number of patients with chronic pain referred to the department on a monthly basis for the year 2023. Weather data were obtained from the meteorological station of Acharnes. A total of 397 referrals were studied.
All data under consideration were tested for normality using the Sapiro–Wilk test. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS version 24 software (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and a significance level was set at p 0.05. Correlation and regression analysis were used to determine the association and the effect of the weather conditions.
A monthly average of 33.08±23.27 (13.25±9.38 for men and 20.67±15.20 for women) total referrals was found. A statistically significant difference was shown between female and male incoming patients (t=2.154, p=0.006). Pearson correlation tests revealed strong correlations between weather indices and monthly referrals. A significant moderate negative correlation was found between the total number of referrals and monthly temperatures (r=-0.669, p0.001) and a strong positive correlation with precipitation (r=0.897, p0.001). There was a statistically significant strong negative correlation between the total number of referrals and monthly temperatures (r=-0.742, p0.001) and a strong positive correlation with precipitation (r=0.889, p0.001). The correlation between precipitation and referrals was stronger for female patients compared to male patients (r=0.886, p0.001 and r=0.799, p0.001, respectively). The multivariate linear regression model with the total number of referrals as the dependent variable and temperature and precipitation as independent variables (predictors) showed a statistically significant effect (β=-1.516, p0.001 for temperature and β=0.435, p0.001 for precipitation). Specifically, we observed a decrease in woman’s referrals by 0.956±0.159 for every 1-unit increase in temperature and an increase of 0.285±0.03 for every 1-unit increase in precipitation. Regarding men’s referrals, there was a decrease by 0.674±0.174 for every 1-unit increase in temperature and an increase of 0.149±0.033 for every 1-unit increase in precipitation.
Multivariate regression analysis confirms the significant strong correlations between temperature and precipitation with the total number of referrals. It was also found that women were more vulnerable to changes in rainfall and temperature compared to men.
The correlation between musculoskeletal pathologies and changes in environmental temperature and humidity could be exploited to design new therapeutic approaches that take environmental aspects into the delivery of rehabilitation therapies. Fluctuations in patient population that may occur due to weather conditions can be assessed by health care facilities in order to organize appropriately to meet these needs.
physiotherapy referrals
weather
