Weather-related subjective well-being in patients with coronary artery disease

Abstract

One of the particularly vulnerable groups for adverse weather conditions is people with heart disease. Most of the studies analyzed the association between certain weather conditions and increased mortality, morbidity, hospital admissions, calls, or visits to the emergency department and used as statistical data. This study evaluated associations between daily weather conditions and daily weather-related well-being in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). From June 2008 to October 2012, a total of 865 consecutive patients with CAD (mean age 60 years; 30% of women) were recruited from the cardiac rehabilitation program at the Hospital Palanga Clinic, Lithuania. To evaluate the well-being, all patients filled in Palanga self-assessment diary for weather sensitivity every day from 8 to 21 days (average 15 ± 3 days) about their well-being (psychological, cardiac, and physical symptoms) on the last day. The weather data was recorded in the database eight times every day with a 3-hour interval using the weather station "Vantage Pro2 Plus" which was located in the same Clinic. The daily averages of the eight time records for weather parameters were calculated and were linked to the same-day diary data. We found that the well-being of patients with CAD was associated with weather parameters; specifically, general well-being was better within the temperature range 9-15 °C and worse on both sides of this range. Worsened general well-being was also associated with higher relative humidity and lower atmospheric pressure. Weather parameters can explain from 3 to 8% of the variance of well-being in patients with CAD.

Keywords: Coronary artery diseases; Subjective well-being; Temperature; Weather; Weather sensitivity.