Sex differences in the experience of pain in the UK Biobank cohort study

Abstract

Objective

Chronic pain has been shown to be more prevalent among women than men. However, each person’s experience of pain is shaped by a complex interplay of biological, psychological and social factors. The aim of this study was to summarise a comprehensive ‘experience of pain’ questionnaire in the UK Biobank and identify differences in the experience of chronic pain between females and males.

Methods

This was an exploratory analysis of an online self-assessment questionnaire consisting of 128 questions related to UK Biobank participant’s experience of pain that was administered in 2019. Data were summarised by sex, and chi-squared and t-tests were used to determine whether there were statistically significant differences between females and males.

Results

About one-third of UK Biobank participants (167,183, 57% female) responded to the questionnaire. More females than males reported suffering from chronic pain (60.0% vs 51.5%). There was female predominance in 11 out of 14 medical conditions, particularly in osteoarthritis (35.6% females vs 24.5% males), migraine (25.0% vs 12.3%) and fibromyalgia (2.7% vs 0.7%). Female participants tended to report pain of greater severity and longer duration that more profoundly impairs their everyday functioning when compared to their male counterparts.

Conclusion

A significant strength of our study is the large sample size, and the high detail of information captured about pain phenotypes, in which we found sex differences in chronic pain persist. We recommend future pain surveys collect sex-based pain conditions to enable better recognition of why sex differences in pain persist.

Keywords

pain sex differences women men

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