Weather and Pain

Introduction

Multiple studies found that every significant change in temperature impacts pain severity. In addition, relatively low barometric pressure, low temperatures and precipitation can potentially increase pain. For patients and pain care physicians who want to track the correlation between pain and the weather, it makes a lot of sense to record the weather while recording the pain. Painscale app makes it easy for the users to automatically capture weather data while the patients log pain.

Availability

Weather tracking feature is available from the Painscale App release 1.7 onwards on both iOS and Android versions of the Painscale app, as well as on the Painscale web.

Enable and Access Weather Data

Accessing weather tracking feature involves the following steps. Enable location access. Create new pain log to capture weather. View weather data associated with a pain log.

I. Enable location Access

The Painscale app should be enabled to access device location in order to track weather. The first step to access the weather feature is to make sure the location access is enabled for your app in your device. Navigate to your Painscale profile screen and from there to the settings page. In the settings page, make sure “Weather tracking” is enabled.

As soon as the “Weather Tracking” button is enabled, the iOS or android will initiate a dialog as follows, which you have to accept by tapping “Allow” button. After you complete these steps, Painscale app will start recording the weather data at your current location whenever you log pain. (Note : Painscale does not access your location except when you log pain.)

II. Create new Pain Log to record weather

The users do not have to explicitly log weather information in the app, the app automatically determines the current weather based on the device location and attaches it to every pain log made. The only requirement is that the user must have enabled location access prior to logging pain to successfully capture and attach weather data to the pain log.

III. View weather data associated with a pain log

Users can view the weather data relating to a pain log made by navigating to the History tab of the app. In the History section, the weather data can be accessed for every day the pain log is made. In the day view, the weather summary is shown, as below.

In order to view the detailed weather data, you will have to select the individual pain log and tap the > next to the weather summary, which will display more detailed weather data associated with the pain log.