Associations between weather conditions and osteoarthritis pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Background: Although there is an assertion that weather conditions affect osteoarthritis (OA) pain, the results from clinical studies remain inconsistent. This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the association between weather conditions and OA pain.

Methods: Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched from inception to September 30, 2022. Observational studies that explored all weather conditions associated with pain intensity were included. In the systematic review, the methodological quality of the selected studies was assessed and a best-evidence synthesis was used to make qualitative conclusions. Based on homogeneous results, Fisher's Z scores derived from the effect size of temperature (T), barometric pressure (BP) or relative humidity (RH) related to OA pain were synthesized and further transformed to the correlation coefficients (summary r) in meta-analysis.

Results: A total of 14 studies were included in the best-evidence synthesis of a qualitative systematic review. There was strong evidence with 13 of 14 studies reporting consistent findings that weather factors in general, including any kind of meteorological condition, were associated with OA pain. Subsequently, 3 studies regarding BP or T, and 5 studies regarding RH with the pain of OA were included in quantitative meta-analyses. Both BP (pooled Fisher's Z = 0.37, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.59; summary r = 0.35, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.53) and RH (pooled Fisher's Z = 0.10, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.18; summary r = 0.086, 95% CI -0.05 to 0.22) were positively related to OA pain, while T was negatively related to OA pain (pooled Fisher's Z = -0.38, 95% CI -0.60 to -0.16; summary r = -0.36, 95% CI -0.54 to -0.16).

Conclusions: In this study, weather factors in general were significantly associated with OA pain. It may provide useful references for the daily health management of OA. More studies designed with the consistent meteorological condition are warranted to validate the findings.KEY MESSAGEMany people with osteoarthritis think their joint pain is affected by the weather, while the association between OA pain and weather conditions is still unclear.This is a systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 observational studies for the association between weather conditions and OA pain.Weather conditions appear to be associated with OA pain. Barometric pressure and relative humidity were positively correlated to OA pain intensity, while temperature was negatively correlated to OA pain.

Keywords: Weather conditions; meta-analysis; osteoarthritis pain; systematic review.

Figure 1.

Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram of search results.

Figure 2.

Forest plot of Fisher’s Z between OA pain and BP RH T.

Figure 3.

Funnel plot of weather variables.