WEATHER EFFECT ON PREVALENCE OF MUSCULOSKELETAL PAIN AND ITS ATTRIBUTES: A CROSSSECTIONAL STUDY

Background: Majority of patients with musculoskeletal pain (MSP) relates their pain to weather changes especially cold one. However, there is inconsistency in the previous literature about that. Objective: to investigate the difference between winter and summer seasons in the occurrences of MSP and its attributes. Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study included 680 patients with musculoskeletal disorders collected from medical records of physiotherapy referrals to an Orthopedic out-patient clinic at a large university hospital in Egypt was conducted. The patients were divided into two groups based on season of their referral; winter group (N=350, from 8/12/2019 to 23/3/2019) and summer group (N=330, from 8/6/2019 to 23/8/2019). Prevalence of MSP (non-specific pain in muscles, tendons, and joint) was compared between the two seasons which. Chi-squared test (significance at p<0.05) was used. Results: MSP prevalence was 30.6% among the total sample. There is no significant difference in the prevalence of MSP between winter and summer seasons (31 % vs. 30%, p>0.05). Moreover, the attributes including body region, gender, and affected side had non-significant effect (p>0.05) on this prevalence. Conclusion: weather has no significant effect on prevalence of MSP