Weather may impact osteoarthritis symptoms after all – but not by much

Weather patterns can have an effect on the severity of osteoarthritis symptoms, says a study published in Spine.

A total of 222 people with hip osteoarthritis were followed for two years and symptoms were evaluated every three months. Data was collected on weather variables such as temperature, hours of sun, wind speed, precipitation, barometric pressure and relative humidity.

Increases in humidity and air pressure were associated with slight increases in levels of osteoarthritis pain, although the size of the variations was only about 1%.

“Our results support the general opinion of osteoarthritis patients that barometric pressure and relative humidity influence osteoarthritis symptoms (pain and disability),” the researchers say. “However, the contribution of these weather variables to the severity of osteoarthritis symptoms is not considered to be clinically relevant.”