Funding outcome

Contrary to popular belief, arthritis can affect children. When it does, the joint pain and stiffness limit the activities of the affected child and family and worsen their quality of life. Children with Juvenile Arthritis and their parents often report to doctors in clinic that certain types of weather or changes in weather trigger flares, worsening their pain and stiffness. Here, we propose to study how the weather influences pain and stiffness in children with Juvenile Arthritis, using information volunteered by nearly 900 patients in more than 5000 visits to their rheumatologist across Canada. We will link information from a written report of pain severity and duration of stiffness provided by patients and parents at every clinic visit with weather reports during the two previous weeks at their place of residence, obtained from a Government of Canada website. This will allow comparison of temperature, humidity, rain/snow, and wind with the severity of pain and duration of the stiffness. Further, for each child, we will compare visits when there was a flare of pain and stiffness with visits where things were stable, checking the weather reports for the weeks before each of these visits. We hope to pinpoint which specific weather conditions result in increased arthritis symptoms to help families plan and to make teachers and coaches aware so they can better assist these children to excel in school and sports despite the weather.