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The prevalence of pain in a general population. The results of a postal survey in a county of Sweden
Abstract
In a postal survey, we asked 1009 randomly chosen individuals, age 18-84, about their pain problems. The pain prevalence depended on what types of questions were asked. Any pain or discomfort, including even a problem of short duration, was reported by 66% of those questioned. Forty percent reported 'obvious pain' (pain which affected them 'to quite a high degree' or more and was 'like being stiff after exercise' or worse) lasting more than 6 months. Pain problems of more than 6 months duration were reported far more often than short-lasting problems. Continuous or nearly continuous pain problems were reported as frequently as problems recurring regularly or irregularly. Pains in the neck, shoulders, arms, lower back and legs were most frequent. The prevalence of 'obvious pain' in these localizations was 15-20%. Pain was reported most frequently in the age group 45-64, where the prevalence of 'obvious pain' was 50% among males as well as females. Over 65 years of age the prevalence was less.
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Cited by
The epidemiology of chronic pain in the community
Elliott, A. M., Smith, B. H., Penny, K. I., Cairns Smith, W., & Alastair Chambers, W. (1999) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(99)03057-3 · Cited by 1,208
Musculoskeletal pain in the Netherlands: prevalences, consequences and risk groups, the DMC3-study
Picavet, H. S. J., & Schouten, J. S. A. G. (2003) · Pain · doi:10.1016/s0304-3959(02)00372-x · Cited by 1,197
The prevalence of neck pain in the world population: a systematic critical review of the literature
Fejer, R., Kyvik, K. O., & Hartvigsen, J. (2006) · European Spine Journal · doi:10.1007/s00586-004-0864-4 · Cited by 1,195
Blanpied, P. R., Gross, A. R., Elliott, J. M., Devaney, L. L., Clewley, D., Walton, D. M., Sparks, C., & Robertson, E. K. (2017) · Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy · doi:10.2519/jospt.2017.0302 · Cited by 979
Epidemiology of chronic musculoskeletal pain
McBeth, J., & Jones, K. (2007) · Best Practice & Research Clinical Rheumatology · doi:10.1016/j.berh.2007.03.003 · Cited by 602
Metadata
- Authors
- Brattberg, G., Thorslund, M., & Wikman, A.
- Venue
- Pain
- Published
- 1989-05
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 215-222
- ISSN
- 0304-3959 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2078901512
- Cited by
- 464
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 3.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Brattberg, G., Thorslund, M., & Wikman, A. (1989). The prevalence of pain in a general population. The results of a postal survey in a county of Sweden. Pain. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3959(89)90133-4
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
