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Statistics About Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is one of the leading causes of disability globally1, it affects 43% of the UK population, with up to 14.3% stating it is moderately to severely disabling2.
Chronic pain is defined by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as “pain that lasts for more than 3 months”3.
It has a higher prevalence in women (38%) than men (30%)4.

In contrast, despite the significant impact on individuals and research, chronic pain remains largely stigmatised.

Disclaimer

Please note, this website contains brief information about each condition, which may be helpful to a student or radiographer such as:

What is the condition?
What may cause the condition?
The symptoms the patient may be experiencing.
What may trigger their pain in your interaction?

The information on each page incorporates the NHS website and other charities and organisations linked to the condition. It is a starting point to encourage students and radiographers to read into conditions related to chronic pain. Each page has extra links to different sites for more information.

What is the condition section

This section contains the definition of the condition from the NHS website. It may contain statistics, that are related to the UK population.

What may cause section

Many conditions have a variety of causes. On each page there is a brief section regarding causes, this does not include every single cause in depth. If you would like to further read into the cause, there are many research articles in journals and charities that will have in-depth information.

What symptoms the patient may experience section

This section contains the most common symptoms related to the conditions, every patient will experience different symptoms. However, a patient visiting the radiography department may experience these.

Triggers

This section is related to what may trigger the patient’s pain regarding interactions in the radiography department. Some conditions have specific triggers that can be used in diagnosis; however, others may have no triggers and be spontaneous. It is also known that not every patient will experience the same triggers and may have other triggers. This is why it is beneficial to ask the patient what can trigger them to reduce the chance of this in the interaction.

Although chronic pain can be triggered, research suggests in degenerative conditions that triggers can improve with an active treatment approach.

Patient experiences

In this website, some conditions will have quotes written by a patient diagnosed with that condition. These quotes are anonymous and show the impact it has.

Any Questions or feedback?

Contact ab.chronicpainrad@gmail.com to get more information on the project.

References

[1] - GBD 2019 Diseases and Injuries Collaborators. Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: a systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2019. Global Health Metrics [Internet]. 2020; 396(10258):1204-1222. Available from DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30925-9

[2] - Fayaz A, Croft P, Langford R, Donaldson J, Jones G. Prevalence of chronic pain in the UK: a systematic review and meta-analysis of population studies. BMJ open [Internet]. 2016; 6(6): Available from: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/6/e010364

[3] - National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Chronic pain: what is it? [Internet]. London: NICE; 2021. Available from: https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/chronic-pain/background-information/definition/

[4] - Public Health England. Chronic pain in adults 2017, Health Survey for England [Internet]. London; 2017. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/940858/Chronic_Pain_Report.pdf

[5] - De Ruddere L, Craig KD. Understanding stigma and chronic pain: a state of the art review. PAIN [Internet]. 2016; 157(8):1607-1610. Available from: https://journals.lww.com/pain/Citation/2016/08000/Understanding_stigma_and_chronic_pain_.8.aspx

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