New smartphone-based study investigates link to pain and the weather
A new app called Cloudy with a Chance of Pain is available to download to smartphones to help investigate whether there is any link between pain and the weather.
Many people report that their pain is worse when the weather is bad, but not scientists at the University of Manchester are on the verge of working out whether if the weather really does affect pain in people with arthritis and other conditions.
Cloudy with a Chance of Pain, funded by Arthritis Research UK, is the world’s first smartphone-based study to investigate the association between paid and the weather. Participants in the study simply by downloading the app to their phone to record how they are feeling, while local weather data is automatically collected using the phone’s GPS.
Anyone who lives in the UK, has arthritis or chronic pain, is over 17 years old and owns a smartphone can take part in the study.
The idea for the app came from Dr Will Dixon, director of The University of Manchester’s Arthritis Research UK Centre for Epidemiology and honorary consultant rheumatologist at Salford Royal NHS.
He says, “This question has been around for more than 2,000 years, but it’s only now with widespread modern technology that we have the ability to answer it.
“And we’re not just inviting people to submit data – we want their ideas about the association between weather and pain too.
“We’re be running a big citizen science experiment where anyone can explore the data and try and spot patterns and relationships in the data. We’re gather ideas and theories from everyone to come up with the best possible conclusion.”
The University of Manchester research is supported by Arthritis Research UK, uMotif in London and the Office for Creative Research in New York. It’s being carried out in association with the University’s Health e-Research Centre.
The app can be downloaded at www.cloudywithachanceofpain.com
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