Many people who suffer with low back pain believe that weather can have an impact on their symptoms, however new research has found that this is not the case.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in three people worldwide suffer with low back pain at any given time. This makes it the most common musculoskeletal condition globally.

Many people with musculoskeletal pain believe that the weather can influence their symptoms, for example, people with chronic pain often report a worsening of symptoms in cold weather.

"Many patients believe that weather impacts their pain symptoms. However, there are few robust studies investigating weather and pain, specifically research that does not rely on patient recall of the weather," noted Dr Daniel Steffens of the University of Sydney in Australia.

He and his team decided to investigate this further. They looked at almost 1,000 patients who had been seen by GPs in 2011 and 2012 for back pain. Weather data from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology was assessed for the same period.

The study found no link between back pain and temperature, humidity, precipitation, air pressure or wind direction.

"Our findings refute previously held beliefs that certain common weather conditions increase risk of lower back pain. Further investigation of the influence of weather parameters on symptoms associated with specific diseases such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis are needed," Dr Steffens concluded.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Arthritis Care & Research.