How the Weather Affects the Pain of Citizen Scientists Using a Smartphone App

William Dixon; Anna Beukenhorst; Belay  Birlie; Louise Cook; Antonio Gasparrini; Tal El-Hay; Bruce Hellman; Ben James; Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera; Malcolm Maclure; Ricardo Silva; John Ainsworth; Huai Leng Pisaniello; Thomas House; Mark Lunt; Carolyn Gamble; Caroline Sanders; David Schultz; Jamie Sergeant; John Mcbeth

doi:10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3

How the Weather Affects the Pain of Citizen Scientists Using a Smartphone App

William Dixon, Anna Beukenhorst, Belay Birlie, Louise Cook, Antonio Gasparrini, Tal El-Hay, Bruce Hellman, Ben James, Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera, Malcolm Maclure, Ricardo Silva, John Ainsworth, Huai Leng Pisaniello, Thomas House, Mark Lunt, Carolyn Gamble, Caroline Sanders, David Schultz, Jamie Sergeant, John Mcbeth

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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 Cloudy with a Chance of Pain 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.

Original language	English
Article number	105
Journal	n p j Digital Medicine
Volume	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3
Publication status	Published - 24 Oct 2019

Keywords

Mobile health
epidemiology
weather
pain
smartphone

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10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3

1 Active
3 Finished

Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis.
Dixon, W. (PI), Bruce, I. (CoI), Felson, D. (CoI), Hyrich, K. (CoI), Lunt, M. (CoI), Mcbeth, J. (CoI), Mcdonagh, J. (CoI), O'Neill, T. (CoI), Sergeant, J. (CoI), Verstappen, S. (CoI) & Serafimova, I. (Support team)
1/08/18 → 31/07/25
Project: Research
The Environments of Convective Storms: Challenging Conventional Wisdom
Schultz, D. (PI)
1/01/16 → 31/12/18
Project: Research
Cloudy with a Chance of Pain.
Dixon, W. (PI), Ainsworth, J. (CoI), Mcbeth, J. (CoI), Sanders, C. (CoI), Schultz, D. (CoI) & Sergeant, J. (CoI)
1/09/15 → 31/05/19
Project: Research

Cite this

Dixon, W., Beukenhorst, A., Birlie, B., Cook, L., Gasparrini, A., El-Hay, T., Hellman, B., James, B., Vicedo-Cabrera, A. M., Maclure, M., Silva, R., Ainsworth, J., Pisaniello, H. L., House, T., Lunt, M., Gamble, C., Sanders, C., Schultz, D., Sergeant, J., & Mcbeth, J. (2019). How the Weather Affects the Pain of Citizen Scientists Using a Smartphone App. n p j Digital Medicine, 2, Article 105. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3

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title = "How the Weather Affects the Pain of Citizen Scientists Using a Smartphone App",

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 Cloudy with a Chance of Pain 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.",

keywords = "Mobile health, epidemiology, weather, pain, smartphone",

author = "William Dixon and Anna Beukenhorst and Belay Birlie and Louise Cook and Antonio Gasparrini and Tal El-Hay and Bruce Hellman and Ben James and Vicedo-Cabrera, {Ana M.} and Malcolm Maclure and Ricardo Silva and John Ainsworth and Pisaniello, {Huai Leng} and Thomas House and Mark Lunt and Carolyn Gamble and Caroline Sanders and David Schultz and Jamie Sergeant and John Mcbeth",

year = "2019",

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doi = "10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3",

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Dixon, W , Beukenhorst, A , Birlie, B, Cook, L, Gasparrini, A, El-Hay, T, Hellman, B, James, B, Vicedo-Cabrera, AM, Maclure, M, Silva, R, Ainsworth, J, Pisaniello, HL, House, T, Lunt, M, Gamble, C, Sanders, C , Schultz, D , Sergeant, J & Mcbeth, J 2019, 'How the Weather Affects the Pain of Citizen Scientists Using a Smartphone App', n p j Digital Medicine, vol. 2, 105. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3

TY - JOUR

T1 - How the Weather Affects the Pain of Citizen Scientists Using a Smartphone App

AU - Dixon, William

AU - Beukenhorst, Anna

AU - Birlie, Belay

AU - Cook, Louise

AU - Gasparrini, Antonio

AU - El-Hay, Tal

AU - Hellman, Bruce

AU - James, Ben

AU - Vicedo-Cabrera, Ana M.

AU - Maclure, Malcolm

AU - Silva, Ricardo

AU - Ainsworth, John

AU - Pisaniello, Huai Leng

AU - House, Thomas

AU - Lunt, Mark

AU - Gamble, Carolyn

AU - Sanders, Caroline

AU - Schultz, David

AU - Sergeant, Jamie

AU - Mcbeth, John

PY - 2019/10/24

Y1 - 2019/10/24

N2 - 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 Cloudy with a Chance of Pain 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.

AB - 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 Cloudy with a Chance of Pain 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.

KW - Mobile health

KW - epidemiology

KW - weather

KW - pain

KW - smartphone

U2 - 10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3

DO - 10.1038/s41746-019-0180-3

M3 - Article

SN - 2398-6352

VL - 2

JO - n p j Digital Medicine

JF - n p j Digital Medicine

M1 - 105

ER -

How the Weather Affects the Pain of Citizen Scientists Using a Smartphone App

Abstract

Keywords

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Projects

Centre for Epidemiology Versus Arthritis.

The Environments of Convective Storms: Challenging Conventional Wisdom

Cloudy with a Chance of Pain.

Cite this