A Fifth of Adults Say They Live with Chronic Pain
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iStock/Thinkstock(SPOKANE, Wash.) — Chronic pain is an unpleasant way of life for nearly one in five adults in the U.S.
Study author Jae Kennedy, a researcher at Washington State University in Spokane, polled 35,000 households to learn that 39 million people have to deal with persistent pain each day.
Kennedy did not include adults who complain about arthritis or back pain because it’s often not constant.
That still left 19 percent of the adult population with pain so serious that a majority said it was either constantly present or even “unbearable and excruciating” at times.
Most of those feeling chronic pain are people 60 to 69; women; the obese or overweight; people who were hospitalized during the past year; and those who claimed their health was fair or poor.
What’s more, Kennedy says that persistent physical discomfort can lead to psychological distress as well.
“Going forward, it will be important to track changes in rates of persistent pain within the U.S., and compare these rates to other countries with different health care systems,” Kennedy said.
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