Effect of Weather on Chief Complaints and Disorders of Outpatients / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

We investigated the effect of season or meteorological phenomena, on chief complaints and disorders of outpatients, by way of clarification of relationship between weather and health. This study covered the new outpatients of our division, and carried out on February '03 and June '03 (February 72 males, 106 females, aged 49.9±18.5, June 98 males, 109 females, aged 47.6±19.5). We categorized their clinical data into chief complaints (pain, headache, discomforts, fever, cough, vertigo/stagger, palsy) and disorders (gastrointestinal, mental, inflammatory, orthopedic, infection, respiratory, circulatory, tumorous, urinary, autoimmune/allergic, dental/oral, gynecological), then, compared the clinical data of February with June, in terms of seasonal disease. Additionally, we investigated the relationship between weather data and clinical data of February and June, from a perspective of meteoropathy. The average of meteorological phenomena (air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, velocity of wind, day length, rainfall level) of a week before first visit, were used as weather data. The main results of analysis about seasonal disease, showed that the complaint of discomfort were more frequent in June than February (p=0.005). The orthopedic disorder was more frequent in June than February (p=0.012). Infection was more frequent in February than June (p=0.011). The analyses in terms of meteoropathy, showed that the complaint of cough were more frequent after cold temperature in February (p=0.014). The gastrointestinal disorders were more frequent after humid (p=0.018) and pluvious days (p=0.016) in February. The complaint of headache was liable to be frequent after pluvious weather in June.<br>The relationship between weather and health is known in the prior an, and our study anew demonstrated the effect of season or meteorological phenomena, on chief complaints and disorders of outpatients, as statistical evidence.