Low Back Pain Not Linked to Weather Conditions

A new Australian study claims that low back pain is not linked to weather conditions.

Researchers at the University of Sydney Australia reveal that sudden acute episodes of low back pain is not linked to weather conditions like temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind direction and precipitation. They highlight that the risk of low back pain slightly increases with rise in wind speed or wind gusts, but it was not clinically significant.

The World Health Organization claims that low back is commonly experienced by all at some point in their life, due to which it is one of the most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions and affects nearly 33 percent of the world population at any given time. People with musculoskeletal pain - which includes bone, muscle, ligament, tendon and nerve - report that their symptoms are influenced by weather. Studies conducted earlier showed that during cold or humid weather as well as when there was a change in weather conditions, those with chronic pain conditions experience a rise in their symptoms.

"Many patients believe that weather impacts their pain symptoms," explains Dr. Daniel Steffens with the George Institute for Global Health at the University of Sydney, Australia. "However, there are few robust studies investigating weather and pain, specifically research that does not rely on patient recall of the weather."

In this study, the researchers observed 993 patients who visited the primary care clinics in Sydney and were recruited between October 2011 and November 2012. They then compared the weather at the time when patients first experienced back pain with the weather conditions of one week and one month prior to the onset of pain.

They noticed that there was no relation between episodes of low back pain and weather conditions. However, they noticed that higher wind speed and wind gusts did slightly up the odds of lower back pain, but this increase was not clinically significant.

"Our findings refute previously held beliefs that certain common weather conditions increase risk of lower back pain," concludes Dr. Steffens. "Further investigation of the influence of weather parameters on symptoms associated with specific diseases such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis are needed."

The finding was documented in the Arthritis Care & Research.