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Papers of the Week


2019


NPJ Digit Med


2

How the weather affects the pain of citizen scientists using a smartphone app.

Authors

Dixon WG, Beukenhorst AL, Yimer BB, Cook L, Gasparrini A, El-Hay T, Hellman B, James B, Vicedo-Cabrera AM, Maclure M, Silva R, Ainsworth J, Pisaniello H L, House T, Lunt M, Gamble C, Sanders C, Schultz DM, Sergeant JC, McBeth J
NPJ Digit Med. 2019; 2:105.
PMID: 31667359.

Abstract

Patients with chronic pain commonly believe their pain is related to the weather. Scientific evidence to support their beliefs is inconclusive, in part due to difficulties in getting a large dataset of patients frequently recording their pain symptoms during a variety of weather conditions. Smartphones allow the opportunity to collect data to overcome these difficulties. Our study analysed daily data from 2658 patients collected over a 15-month period. The analysis demonstrated significant yet modest relationships between pain and relative humidity, pressure and wind speed, with correlations remaining even when accounting for mood and physical activity. This research highlights how citizen-science experiments can collect large datasets on real-world populations to address long-standing health questions. These results will act as a starting point for a future system for patients to better manage their health through pain forecasts.