Measuring Temporal Instability of Momentary Affect, Subjective Health and Symptom Burden Depending on Environmental Parameters-An Ambulatory Assessment Study in Persons with Hay Fever.

Tim Rostalski,Holger Muehlan,Silke Schmidt

doi:10.3390/ijerph18020406

Abstract

Our ambulatory assessment study explores the impact of the weather on the mental well-being of people with increased susceptibility. Participants with hay fever (n = 28) were assessed three times a day over a period of two weeks. Self-reported assessments covered different indicators of mental well-being, including momentary affect, subjective health as well as symptom burden. Based on tracked time stamps and location information, the data was matched with concurrent observation data from weather stations. We applied multilevel analysis to identify the main effects of selected environmental parameters (temperature, precipitation, wind power, sunshine duration and relative humidity) on all indicators of subjective well-being. Results confirm the main effects of sunshine duration, relative humidity and temperature on momentary affect as well as of sunshine duration, relative humidity and precipitation on subjective health and symptom burden. However, influences of environmental parameters on momentary affect were quite small and do not differ from effects documented in previous research in healthy samples with non-increased susceptibility.

Highlights

People’s momentary affect can vary from day to day or even during the course of a day, and is influenced by a variety of situational and environmental factors [1]
Beside general approaches to link environmental parameters with mental health and well-being, such as the “ecosystem service perspective” [2], a multitude of specific studies have shown that temperature [3,4,5,6,7], sunlight [3,4,6,7], wind power [3], relative humidity [4,7] and rain [6,8] are associated with momentary affect
The sample consisted of 28 participants (18 women and 10 men) with seasonal allergic rhinitis

Summary

Introduction

People’s momentary affect can vary from day to day or even during the course of a day, and is influenced by a variety of situational and environmental factors [1]. Beside general approaches to link environmental parameters with mental health and well-being, such as the “ecosystem service perspective” [2], a multitude of specific studies have shown that temperature [3,4,5,6,7], sunlight [3,4,6,7], wind power [3], relative humidity [4,7] and rain [6,8] are associated with momentary affect These effects tend to be small and inconsistent, and other studies have found no significant effects of weather on people’s moods [1].

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion