Lower Back Pain not Linked to Weather: Study

Lower back pain isn't related to temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed or other weather conditions, a new study suggests.

The idea that one can "feel the weather in their bones" is quite old. People who suffer from chronic pain, especially those dealing with arthritis, often say that their pain worsens during cold or rainy days.

The new study by researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia, has found no significant association between weather phenomenon and pain in the lower back.

"Many patients believe that weather impacts their pain symptoms," explained Dr. Daniel Steffens with the George Institute for Global Health at the University of Sydney, Australia, according to a news release. "However, there are few robust studies investigating weather and pain, specifically research that does not rely on patient recall of the weather."

Lower back pain is a common condition, affecting nearly everyone in the world at some time in their lives. The World Health Organization stated that a third of the world's population experiences lower back pain at any given time.

Steffens and colleagues wanted to see if cold or humid weather was really linked to back pain.

The team recruited 993 patients between October 2011 and November 2012. Weather data was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Researchers compared weather data to the patients' visit to the hospital for backache treatment. In the study, 'case window' was the time patients noticed the back pain and 'control window' was one month or a week before the pain.

Data analysis showed no link between lower back pain and weather conditions such as humidity, temperature or rain. Researchers did find a slight increase in chances of pain during high wind speed or gusts. However, researchers said that the link was weak and wasn't clinically important.

"Our findings refute previously held beliefs that certain common weather conditions increase risk of lower back pain," concluded Dr. Steffens. "Further investigation of the influence of weather parameters on symptoms associated with specific diseases such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis are needed."

The study is published in the journal Arthritis Care & Research.

Cindy Malenica (47) believes that her back pain is affected by weather. She suffered from an accident when she was a teen and has suffered from chronic back pain ever since. "Maybe the weather doesn't affect everyone," she told News.com.au. "But there must be a lot of people who are in the same boat as me, who do find that cold weather and a change of weather really affects their back."