Weather and Health Symptoms

Mihye Lee, Sachiko Ohde, Kevin Y. Urayama, Osamu Takahashi and Tsuguya Fukui
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Mihye Lee: Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo 104−0045, Japan
Sachiko Ohde: Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo 104−0045, Japan
Kevin Y. Urayama: Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo 104−0045, Japan
Osamu Takahashi: Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo 104−0045, Japan
Tsuguya Fukui: Graduate School of Public Health, St. Luke’s International University, Tokyo 104−0045, Japan

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Weather affects the daily lives of individuals. However, its health effects have not been fully elucidated. It may lead to physical symptoms and/or influence mental health. Thus, we evaluated the association between weather parameters and various ailments. We used daily reports on health symptoms from 4548 individuals followed for one month in October of 2013, randomly sampled from the entirety of Japan. Weather variables from the monitoring station located closest to the participants were used as weather exposure. Logistic mixed effects model with a random intercept for each individual was applied to evaluate the effect of temperature and humidity on physical symptoms. Stratified analyses were conducted to compare weather effects by sex and age group. The lag day effects were also assessed. Joint pain was associated with higher temperature (1.87%, 95% CI = 1.15 to 2.59) and humidity (1.38%, 95% CI = 0.78 to 2.00). Headaches was increased by 0.56% (95% CI = −0.55 to 1.77) per 1 °C increase in the maximum temperature and by 1.35% per 1 °C increase in dew point. Weather was associated with various physical symptoms. Women seem to be more sensitive to weather conditions in association with physical symptoms, especially higher humidity and lower temperature.

Keywords: weather and physical symptoms; pain; joint pain; headache; cough; temperature; humidity; depressed mood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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