You are in > manchester.com  > News > Quarter of Americans 'in pain', study claims

Health

Quarter of Americans 'in pain', study claims

02/05/2008

More than a quarter of American people are in pain at any point in time, according to new research.

A study published in the Lancet journal says those with lower incomes and less education spend more time in pain and have higher than average pain.

The findings are based on a representative group of nearly 4,000 Americans who reported their activities and the occurrence and intensity of pain in a diary over a 24-hour period.

Researchers from Princeton University and Stony Brook University found that 29 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women reported feeling some pain at sampled times.

The average pain rating increased with age, although it reached a temporary plateau between the ages of 45 and 75 years, before rising again above 75 years, with little difference between men and women.

People undertaking personal care, lawn and garden work, sports and exercise (men only) and providing medical care (women only) reported higher than average pain ratings than other activities.

The findings are important as pain is a considerable cost for the healthcare system and economy; in the US pain is estimated to cost over $60 billion (£30 billion) a year in lost productivity.

The researchers conclude that diary-surveys provide a snapshot of environmental, demographic, economic, and social aspects of everyday pain and could be useful for both clinicians and other researchers.

"The diary-survey methods… could be used to study pain at the population level, and will enable the combination of pain assessments with information about activities of daily living," the study's authors argue.

In an accompanying comment in the Lancet, Dr Juha Turunen of Finland's University of Kuopio said: "I hope that more studies like this will help to find ways of identifying subgroups needing help with their pain, for example to enable pain sufferers to obtain quicker and easier access to multidisciplinary pain clinics."