Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of participants eligible for analysis.
| Characteristics | All eligible participants, n (% or SD or IQRa) (n=6370) |
||
| Demographics | |||
| Female | 5129 (80.52%) | ||
| Mean age in years | 49.2 (12.9) | ||
| Pain condition | |||
| Site of pain | |||
| Single | 605 (9.50%) | ||
| Multisite | 4675 (73. 39%) | ||
| All over pain | 1059 (16.62%) | ||
| Missing | 31 (0.49%) | ||
| Diagnosis of conditions | |||
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 1218 (19.12%) | ||
| Ankylosing spondylitis/spondyloarthropathy | 576 (9.04%) | ||
| Gout | 231 (3.63%) | ||
| Arthritis (type not specified) | 2567 (40.29%) | ||
| Fibromyalgia/chronic widespread pain | 1513 (23.79%) | ||
| Chronic headache | 462 (7.25%) | ||
| Neuropathic | 821 (12.89%) | ||
| Other | 1442 (22.64%) | ||
| Medications used at baseline | |||
| Analgesics | |||
| None | 619 (9.72%) | ||
| Paracetamol | 3154 (49.51%) | ||
| Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs | 3694 (57.99%) | ||
| Simple analgesics | 1937 (30.41%) | ||
| Weak opiates | 1902 (29.86%) | ||
| Strong opiates | 782 (12.28%) | ||
| Neuropathic pain medication | 1297 (20.36%) | ||
| Other pain medications | 717 (11.26%) | ||
| Disease modifying treatment | |||
| None | 4407 (69.18%) | ||
| Steroids | 480 (7.54%) | ||
| Synthetic DMARDsb | 1282 (20.13%) | ||
| Biologic DMARDs | 560 (8.79%) | ||
| Other DMARDs | 406 (6.37%) | ||
| Beliefs | |||
| Median strength of belief in the association between weather and pain | 7 (6-9) | ||
| Weather conditions that participants think most affect their pain | |||
| Damp or rain | 4741 (74.43%) | ||
| Cold | 4374 (68.67%) | ||
| Hot | 940 (14.76%) | ||
| Changes in barometric pressure | 1945 (30.53%) | ||
| Changes in temperature | 1967 (30.88%) | ||
aIQR: interquartile range.
bDMARDs: disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.