Does health weather forecast influence office visits to family physicians?

Abstract:

Due to perceptible indications of climate change, the interest of scientific community in understanding the influence of weather on human health is increasing. Health weather forecast alerts people, especially patients with chronic diseases, about the possible influence of weather on their health condition. Aim: The aim was to determine the level of influence of health weather forecast on the number of office visits to a family medicine office. Material and methods: The study was performed in a Health Centre in Slavonski Brod between 26th of February to 30th of March 2007. We determined the number of office visits in the study period and investigated how many patients with chronic diseases follow the health weather forecast and report the symptoms mentioned in the forecast. Results: Out of 1083 patients who visited the family medicine office in the five-week period, 108 reported having symptoms mentioned in the daily health weather forecast. When possible worsening of rheumatic disease symptoms was mentioned in the daily health weather forecast, 100% of patients with rheumatic diseases reported having these symptoms. The same results were obtained for vascular and respiratory diseases; 92.31% patients reported a headache if increased possibility of headaches was mentioned in the forecast. Conclusion: Our finding shows that the number of office visits increases with the unfavourable health weather forecast. However, 50% of the patients who did not follow the health weather forecast reported having symptoms mentioned in the forecast, which indicates a possible relationship between the weather conditions and occurrence of symptoms. 

Key words:
chronic disease; family practice; meteorology; office visits; signs and symptoms