Influence of weather conditions on rheumatic pain.

Objective: To evaluate the influence of the weather in Cordoba City, Argentina, on pain in patients with rheumatic pain; to correlate different climate variables with the patients' impression of weather sensitivity; and to assess correlations between pain and climate conditions on 5 days preceding and following painful episode.

Methods: Self-reported questionnaires to assess the presence and features of spontaneous daily pain during one year (1998) were completed by 151 outpatients with osteoarthritis (OA) (n = 52), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n = 82), and fibromyalgia (FM) (n = 17) and 32 healthy subjects. Data were correlated with daily temperature, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity obtained during the same period.