Survey Reveals Painful Statistics

Americans’ wallets are not the only things feeling the pinch these days. The American Pain Foundation (http://www.painfoundation.org) offers some startling statistics about pain:

•  Pain affects more Americans than cancer, diabetes mellitus, and heart disease combined.

•  An estimated 76.5 million Americans report having had troublesome pain that lasted more than 24 hours. This does not take into account the numbers of persons who have acute pain.

•  Pain is more common in women (27.1% of respondents) than in men (24.4%).

•  Low-income (below poverty level) adults report being in pain more often than persons who have higher incomes.

•  Of the persons who describe being in pain, one-third say that it is disabling and impedes participation in activities of daily living.

•  Results of a National Institute of Health Statistics survey indicate that low back pain (LBP) is the most common kind of pain (27%), followed by severe headache or migraine pain (15%), neck pain (15%), and facial pain (4%).

•  In the United States, the annual cost of chronic pain-including health care expenses, lost income, and diminished worker productivity-is about $100 billion. Costs associated with LBP alone average $85.9 billion. The total cost of arthritis-which is the nation’s leading cause of disability-is estimated at $128 billion.

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