The Correlation between the Temperature, Precipitation, and Referrals for Physical Therapy for Patients with Chronic Musculoskeletal Problems

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how temperature and precipitation are associated with the number of referrals for physical therapy. Material and Methods: Weather data and monthly referrals were collected retrospectively for three years (2020–2022). A total of 937 referrals were studied. Trend analysis was conducted to identify patterns and trends in data over time, including correlation analysis to discover relationships and multivariate linear regression analyses to model the direction and strength of this. Results: Monthly referrals were found to be strongly associated with weather indicators (rs = −0.744, p s = 0.894, p p p p p < 0.001). Conclusion: Low temperatures and high precipitation rates were found to be associated with an increased number of referrals. Females were more vulnerable to precipitation increases.

Keywords

• chronic musculoskeletal pain
• physiotherapy
• temperature
• precipitation