Chronic Pain - Epidemiology

Epidemiology

In a recent large-scale telephone survey of 15 European countries and Israel, 19% of respondents over 18 years of age had suffered pain for more than 6 months, including the last month, and more than twice in the last week, with pain intensity of 5 or more for the last episode, on a scale of 1(no pain) to 10 (worst imaginable). 4839 of these respondents with chronic pain were interviewed in depth. Sixty six percent scored their pain intensity at moderate (5–7), and 34% at severe (8–10); 46% had constant pain, 56% intermittent; 49% had suffered pain for 2–15 years; and 21% had been diagnosed with depression due to the pain. Sixty one percent were unable or less able to work outside the home, 19% had lost a job, and 13% had changed jobs due to their pain. Forty percent had inadequate pain management and less than 2% were seeing a pain management specialist.

In a systematic literature review published by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), 13 chronic pain studies from various countries around the world were analyzed. (Of the 13 studies, there were three in the United Kingdom, two in Australia, one each in France, the Netherlands, Israel, Canada, Scotland, Spain, and Sweden, and a multinational.) The authors found that the prevalence of chronic pain was very high and that chronic pain consumes a large amount of healthcare resources around the globe. Chronic pain afflicted women at a higher rate than men. They determined that the prevalence of chronic pain varied from 10.1% to 55.2% of the population.

In the United States, the prevalence of chronic pain has been estimated to be approximately 30%. According to the Institute of Medicine, there are about 116 million Americans living with chronic pain. The Mayday Fund estimate of 70 million Americans with chronic pain is slightly more conservative. In an internet study, the prevalence of chronic pain in the United States was calculated to be 30.7% of the population: 34.3% for women and 26.7% for men. These estimates are in reasonable agreement and indicate a prevalence of chronic pain in the US that is relatively comparable to that of other countries.