IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ehbiol/v47y2022ics1570677x2200096x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pain trends and pain growth disparities, 2009–2021

Author

Listed:
  • Macchia, Lucía

Abstract

Physical pain is a major public health concern. Yet evidence on trends in physical pain around the world barely exists. Using nationally representative data from 146 countries (N = 1.6 million respondents), this paper finds that, all over the world, the percentage of people in pain increased from 26.3 in 2009 to 32.1 in 2021. This rising trend was present in both higher- and lower-income countries. This article also documents pain disparities: In the worldwide population, pain grew faster among women, the less educated, and the poor. Although the aggregate level of pain was greater among the elderly (> 60 years old), the growth in pain was faster among the younger (< 35 years old). These findings hold after controlling for sociodemographic factors. Disparities of pain growth in higher- and lower-income nations and potential explanatory factors are also discussed. Understanding how the level of pain varies over time and across demographic groups is crucial to evaluate and shape public health policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Macchia, Lucía, 2022. "Pain trends and pain growth disparities, 2009–2021," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:47:y:2022:i:c:s1570677x2200096x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101200
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1570677X2200096X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ehb.2022.101200?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Macchia, Lucía & Oswald, Andrew J., 2021. "Physical pain, gender, and the state of the economy in 146 nations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    2. Blanchflower, David G. & Bryson, Alex, 2022. "Taking the pulse of nations: A biometric measure of well-being," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    3. Glei, Dana A. & Stokes, Andrew & Weinstein, Maxine, 2020. "Changes in mental health, pain, and drug misuse since the mid-1990s: Is there a link?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    4. David G. Blanchflower & Andrew J. Oswald, 2019. "Unhappiness and Pain in Modern America: A Review Essay, and Further Evidence, on Carol Graham's Happiness for All?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(2), pages 385-402, June.
    5. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2002. "What Can Economists Learn from Happiness Research?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 402-435, June.
    6. Zachary Zimmer & Anna Zajacova & Philippa Clarke, 2020. "Persistent, Consistent, and Extensive: The Trend of Increasing Pain Prevalence in Older Americans," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 75(2), pages 436-447.
    7. María E. Dávalos & Hai Fang & Michael T. French, 2012. "Easing The Pain Of An Economic Downturn: Macroeconomic Conditions And Excessive Alcohol Consumption," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(11), pages 1318-1335, November.
    8. Carol Graham & Sergio Pinto, 2019. "Unequal hopes and lives in the USA: optimism, race, place, and premature mortality," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(2), pages 665-733, April.
    9. Alan Piper & David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2021. "Does Pain Lead to Job Loss? A Panel Study for Germany," DoQSS Working Papers 21-19, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    10. Brown, Timothy T. & Partanen, Juulia & Chuong, Linh & Villaverde, Vaughn & Chantal Griffin, Ann & Mendelson, Aaron, 2018. "Discrimination hurts: The effect of discrimination on the development of chronic pain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 1-8.
    11. McNamee, Paul & Mendolia, Silvia, 2014. "The effect of chronic pain on life satisfaction: Evidence from Australian data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 65-73.
    12. Ólafsdóttir, Thorhildur & Ásgeirsdóttir, Tinna Laufey & Norton, Edward C., 2020. "Valuing pain using the subjective well-being method," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    13. Anne Case & Angua Deaton, 2015. "Rising morbidity and mortality in midlife among white non-Hispanic Americans in the 21st century," Working Papers 15078.full.pdf, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Research Program in Development Studies..
    14. Bjørnskov, Christian & Drehe, Axel & Fischer, Justina A.V., 2008. "On decentralization and life satisfaction," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 147-151, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tang, Cheng Keat & Macchia, Lucía & Powdthavee, Nattavudh, 2023. "Income is more protective against pain in more equal countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Macchia, Lucía & Oswald, Andrew J., 2021. "Physical pain, gender, and the state of the economy in 146 nations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    2. David G Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2022. "Further decoding the mystery of American pain: The importance of work," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-16, January.
    3. Ólafsdóttir, Thorhildur & Ásgeirsdóttir, Tinna Laufey & Norton, Edward C., 2020. "Valuing pain using the subjective well-being method," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    4. O'Connor, Kelsey J. & Graham, Carol, 2019. "Longer, more optimistic, lives: Historic optimism and life expectancy in the United States," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 374-392.
    5. Strulik, Holger, 2021. "From pain patient to junkie: An economic theory of painkiller consumption and its impact on wellbeing and longevity," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Macchia, Lucía & Daly, Michael & Delaney, Liam, 2023. "The effect of adverse employment circumstances on physical pain: evidence from Australian panel data," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119712, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Wang, Huixia & Wang, Chenggang & Halliday, Timothy J., 2018. "Health and health inequality during the great recession: Evidence from the PSID," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 17-30.
    8. Chenggang Wang & Huixia Wang & Timothy J. Halliday, 2017. "Health and Health Inequality during the Great Recession: Evidence from the PSID," Working Papers 201703, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    9. Eiji Yamamura, 2012. "The Effects of Information Asymmetry and Government Size on Happiness: A Case Study from Japan," The IUP Journal of Governance and Public Policy, IUP Publications, vol. 0(1), pages 7-20, March.
    10. Alexandra Nonnenmacher & Jürgen Friedrichs, 2013. "The Missing Link: Deficits of Country-Level Studies. A Review of 22 Articles Explaining Life Satisfaction," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 110(3), pages 1221-1244, February.
    11. Gutin, Iliya & Copeland, William & Godwin, Jennifer & Mullan Harris, Kathleen & Shanahan, Lilly & Gaydosh, Lauren, 2023. "Defining despair: Assessing the multidimensionality of despair and its association with suicidality and substance use in early to middle adulthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    12. Kristjana Baldursdottir & Paul McNamee & Edward C. Norton & Tinna Laufey Asgeirsdottir, 2023. "Life satisfaction and body mass index: estimating the monetary value of achieving optimal body weight," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1215-1246, December.
    13. Carpenter, Christopher S. & McClellan, Chandler B. & Rees, Daniel I., 2017. "Economic conditions, illicit drug use, and substance use disorders in the United States," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 63-73.
    14. yamamura, eiji, 2008. "The influence of government size on economic growth and life satisfaction. A case study from Japan," MPRA Paper 10835, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Leonardo E. Letelier-S & José L. Sáez-Lozano, 2020. "Expenditure Decentralization: Does It Make Us Happier? An Empirical Analysis Using a Panel of Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-17, September.
    16. Stöckel, Jannis & van Exel, Job & Brouwer, Werner B.F., 2023. "Adaptation in life satisfaction and self-assessed health to disability - Evidence from the UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    17. Janina Nemitz, 2022. "Increasing longevity and life satisfaction: is there a catch to living longer?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(2), pages 557-589, April.
    18. Bruno Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2010. "Happiness and public choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 144(3), pages 557-573, September.
    19. Baldursdottir, Kristjana & Asgeirsdottir, Tinna Laufey & Olafsdottir, Thorhildur, 2023. "How sensitive is the compensating income variation to severity and adaptation?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    20. Juan José Barrios, 2013. "Competition and wellbeing," Documentos de Investigación 95, Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:47:y:2022:i:c:s1570677x2200096x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622964 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.