By Pat Anson, PNN Editor

Nearly 60 percent of U.S. adults have some type of short or long-term pain, according to a new CDC report that found the prevalence of pain steadily increases with age and is highest among adults aged 65 and older. Being female, white or poor also increased the likelihood of pain.

The CDC study is based on data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey, in which participants were asked if they felt pain “some days,” “most days” or “every day” in the last 3 months.

Back pain (39%) was the most common site for pain, followed by pain in the hips, knees or feet (36.5%); hands, arms and shoulders (30.7%); and head pain (22.4%). About ten percent of those surveyed said they had abdominal or dental pain.

U.S. Adults With Pain in Last 3 Months

“Overall, nearly three in five adults (58.9%) experienced pain of any kind in the past 3 months in 2019,” researchers reported. “Location-specific pain, such as back, neck, arm, and hip pain is associated with short- and long-term health effects, ranging from minor discomfort to musculoskeletal impairment, diminished quality of life, and escalating health care costs.”

Household income appears to play a role in pain prevalence. Nearly 45% of people living in a household below the 2019 federal poverty level ($25,750 for a family of four) reported having back pain. For people with household income at least 200% higher, the rate of back pain was 37.6 percent. The association between pain and poverty was similar for people with pain in their upper and lower limbs.

The study findings are similar to the so-called “deaths of despair” first reported in 2015 by Princeton researchers Angus Deaton and Anne Case, who found that financial and emotional stress caused by unemployment and stagnant incomes may be behind the reduced life expectancy of middle-aged white Americans.

Between 1999 and 2013, the mortality rate for middle aged whites rose by 2 percent, coinciding with an increase in fatal overdoses. No other race or ethnic group saw such an increase in mortality. The rising death rate for whites was accompanied by more suicides and substance abuse, as well as increases in joint pain, neck pain, sciatica and disability.

One critic of the “deaths of despair” theory is Andrew Kolodny, MD, the founder of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP).  Kolodny in a recent webinar claimed that overdoses were driven by drug addiction, not socioeconomic factors.

“The deaths of despair framing, while provocative, is unlikely to explain the main sources of the fatal drug epidemic and that efforts to improve economic conditions in distressed locations, while desirable for other reasons, are not likely to yield significant reductions in drug mortality,” Kolodny said.

Kolodny and at least three other PROP board members have been well-paid expert witnesses in opioid litigation cases – lawsuits that depend on a public narrative that excess opioid prescribing led to the overdose crisis, not mental health problems or economic disparity. Maintaining that narrative is becoming harder, with opioid prescribing at 20-year lows and overdose deaths at record highs, fueled in part by economic and social issues exacerbated by the covid pandemic.