IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/qss/dqsswp/2128.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Consequences of Chronic Pain in Mid-Life: Evidence from the National Child Development Survey

Author

Listed:
  • David G. Blanchflower

    (Bruce V. Rauner ’78 Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755-3514. Adam Smith School of Business, University of Glasgow and NBER)

  • Alex Bryson

    (Professor of Quantitative Social Science, UCL Social Research Institute, University College London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL)

Abstract

Using data from all those born in a single week in 1958 in Britain we track the consequences of short pain and chronic pain in mid-life (age 44) on health, wellbeing and labor market outcomes in later life. We examine data taken at age 50 in 2008, when the Great Recession hit and then five years later at age 55 in 2013. We find those suffering both short-term and chronic pain at age 44 continue to report pain and poor general health in their 50s. However, the associations are much stronger for those with chronic pain. Furthermore, chronic pain at age 44 is associated with a range of poor mental health outcomes, pessimism about the future and joblessness at age 55 whereas short-duration pain at age 44 is not. Uniquely, we also show that pain experienced in childhood, at ages 11 and 16, reported by a parent and a teacher respectively, collected decades earlier, predicts pain in mid-life, indicating just how persistent pain can be over the life-course.

Suggested Citation

  • David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2021. "The Consequences of Chronic Pain in Mid-Life: Evidence from the National Child Development Survey," DoQSS Working Papers 21-28, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    • Handle: RePEc:qss:dqsswp:2128
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.ioe.ac.uk/REPEc/pdf/qsswp2128.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bell, David N.F. & Blanchflower, David G., 2019. "The well-being of the overemployed and the underemployed and the rise in depression in the UK," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 180-196.
    2. Blanchflower, David G. & Bryson, Alex, 2021. "Unemployment and sleep: evidence from the United States and Europe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    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. David G. Blanchflower & Donn. L. Feir, 2023. "Native Americans’ experience of chronic distress in the USA," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 885-909, April.
    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. Alan Piper & David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2023. "Is pain associated with subsequent job loss? A panel study for Germany," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 141-158, February.

    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. Ondřej Dvouletý, 2023. "Underemployment and overemployment in Central Europe," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 12(2), pages 147-156.
    2. David G. Blanchflower, 2020. "Is Happiness U-shaped Everywhere? Age and Subjective Well-being in 132 Countries," NBER Working Papers 26641, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Preethi Pratap & Alison Dickson & Marsha Love & Joe Zanoni & Caitlin Donato & Michael A. Flynn & Paul A. Schulte, 2021. "Public Health Impacts of Underemployment and Unemployment in the United States: Exploring Perceptions, Gaps and Opportunities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-25, September.
    4. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2020. "Now Unions Increase Job Satisfaction and Well-being," NBER Working Papers 27720, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Gabriel Rodríguez-Puello & Ariel Arcos & Benjamin Jara, 2022. "Would you Value a few More Hours of work? Underemployment and Subjective Well-Being Across Chilean Workers," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(2), pages 885-912, April.
    6. David G. Blanchflower & Carol L. Graham, 2022. "The Mid-Life Dip in Well-Being: a Critique," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 287-344, May.
    7. Claveria, Oscar, 2022. "Global economic uncertainty and suicide: Worldwide evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 305(C).
    8. David G. Blanchflower, 2021. "Is happiness U-shaped everywhere? Age and subjective well-being in 145 countries," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 575-624, April.
    9. Blanchflower, David G., 2020. "Unhappiness and age," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 461-488.
    10. Hamilton, Odessa S. & Jolles, Daniel & Lordan, Grace, 2023. "Does the Tendency for 'Quiet Quitting' Differ across Generations? Evidence from the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 16240, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Kamerāde, Daiga & Wang, Senhu & Burchell, Brendan & Balderson, Sarah Ursula & Coutts, Adam, 2019. "A shorter working week for everyone: How much paid work is needed for mental health and well-being?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    12. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson & Colin Green, 2022. "Trade unions and the well‐being of workers," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 255-277, June.
    13. Brendan Burchell & Senhu Wang & Daiga Kamerade & Ioulia Bessa & Jill Rubery, 2020. "Cut Hours, Not People: No Work, Furlough, Short Hours and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the UK," Working Papers wp521, Centre for Business Research, University of Cambridge.
    14. Papps, Kerry L. & Bryson, Alex & Reade, J. James, 2023. "Running Up That Hill: Fitness in the Face of Recession," IZA Discussion Papers 16410, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. David N. F. Bell & David G. Blanchflower, 2021. "Underemployment in the United States and Europe," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 74(1), pages 56-94, January.
    16. Jianbo Jeff Luo, 2022. "Is Work a Burden? The Role of the Living Standard," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 61-77, August.
    17. Yea-Li-A Song & Jae-Hyun Park, 2022. "Differences in Body Mass Index Trajectories and Their Classification, Sociodemographic Characteristics, and Health Behaviors between People with and without Disabilities Using Korea Health Panel Surve," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-13, February.
    18. Conlin, Andrew & Nerg, Iiro & Ala-Mursula, Leena & Räihä, Tapio & Korhonen, Marko, 2023. "The association between chronotype and wages at mid-age," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    pain; mental health; general health; sleep; paid work; wellbeing; life-course; birth cohort; NCDS;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:qss:dqsswp:2128. 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: Dr Neus Bover Fonts (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dqioeuk.html .

    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.