PainRelief.com Interview with:
Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk PhD
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
University at Buffalo, SUNY

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Although chronic pain is recognized as an extremely common and costly health problem, little research has explored temporal trends in pain prevalence.  Indeed, as recently as 5-6 years ago, there was no published research using general population data examining whether pain prevalence in the U.S. was going up, going down, or staying constant.  (This can be contrasted to conditions such as diabetes and cancer, for which information about long-term trends is readily available.  Of note, chronic pain affects more Americans than diabetes, cancer, and heart disease combined.)  In recent years, a few studies have documented rising pain prevalence in the U.S., but most have used data on middle-aged or older adults.