Chronic Pain among Patients with Long-Term Conditions and Multimorbidity

Takeaway

Chronic pain was very common across a wide range of long-term conditions (LTCs).
Patients with multimorbidity were likely to experience chronic pain to a greater extent.

Why This Matters

Findings suggest that chronic pain is a key factor for consideration in the clinical management of patients with LTCs and multimorbidity.

Study Design

Researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and St Andrews conducted a cross-sectional study involving 500,295 participants (age, 37 to 73 years) from the UK Biobank (2006-2010).
The association between the presence and extent (multiple sites) of chronic pain and the type and number of LTCs (n=45) was evaluated.
Funding: Versus Arthritis.

Key Results

Overall, 43.7% of participants reported chronic pain in ≥ one site for ≥3 months.
Of these, 23.0% reported chronic pain at one site, 16.3% at two to three sites, 3.0% at four to seven sites, and 1.4% reported widespread pain.
Overall, 69.1% of participants reported ≥ one LTCs and 36.2% reported ≥2 LTCs.
Chronic pain was common in patients with LTCs, such as migraine/headache, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, and mental health conditions, where pain was a primary symptom.
Patients with more than four LTCs vs those without had a more than three times higher likelihood of chronic pain (relative risk ratio [RRR] 3.56; 95% CI 3.44 to 3.68) and 20 times higher likelihood of widespread chronic pain (RRR 20.13; 95% CI 18.26 to 22.19).

Limitations

Data on LTCs were self-reported.

McQueenie R, Jani BD, Siebert S, McLoone P, McCowan C, Macdonald S, Mair FS, Nicholl BI. Prevalence of chronic pain in LTCs and multimorbidity: A cross-sectional study using UK Biobank. J Comorb. 2021;11:26335565211005870. doi: 10.1177/26335565211005870. PMID: 35004337. View Abstract

Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.

Cite this: Pavankumar Kamat. Chronic Pain among Patients with Long-Term Conditions and Multimorbidity - Medscape - Jan 27, 2022.

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