According to study findings published in the journal BMC Medicine, a higher number of chronic pain locations is connected with an increased risk of all-cause dementia.
Previous research has found a relationship between persistent musculoskeletal pain and dementia. Musculoskeletal pain can occur in numerous locations, and some studies have found a link between pain in multiple locations and decreased physical and mental health. A retrospective population-based study was done to investigate the link between chronic pain in many places and the likelihood of all-cause dementia.
Data was gathered from the UK Biobank Study, which comprised over 500,000 people aged 40 to 69. Participants completed a baseline survey to report the locations and duration of chronic pain.
The primary outcome was a dementia diagnosis, which was determined using hospital inpatient data and death registry information. Diagnoses were classified using the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9 and ICD-10) coding system.
These findings show that persistent pain in various areas may be a useful marker for assessing dementia risk and identifying ‘at-risk’ persons early on.
The analysis comprised 356,383 of the 502,492 individuals recruited at the outset.
The average age of the participants was 56.5 years (standard deviation [SD], 8.1 years), and 51.6% were female. The median duration of follow-up was 13.3 years (interquartile range [IQR], 12.6-14.0). During the follow-up period, 4,959 new dementia diagnoses were recorded, including 2,083 instances of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 1,092 cases of vascular dementia, and 166 cases of frontotemporal dementia.
Patients reporting pain in 1, 2, 3, and 4 places, as well as full-body discomfort, were 24.4%, 10.3%, 3.9%, 1.3%, and 1.3%, respectively, at the start of the trial. At baseline, 58.8% of participants reported no chronic discomfort.
The fully adjusted model and univariable analysis indicated a significant link between the number of pain sites and an elevated risk of all-cause dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08 per 1 site increase; 95% CI, 1.05-1.11).
A dose-response association was discovered for participants reporting at least one chronic pain site, indicating an elevated risk for incident all-cause dementia when compared to those who did not report chronic pain.
Those reporting 2, 3, and 4 pain sites, as well as whole body pain, had a 29%, 27%, 30%, and 37% increased risk of incident AD, respectively, compared to patients without chronic pain, with 4 pain sites and full body pain having borderline significance.
“These findings suggest that chronic pain in multiple sites may represent an accessible marker to assess an individual’s dementia risk and identify’at-risk’ individuals in the early stages,” the researchers concluded.
The study’s shortcomings were a lack of generalizability to other ethnicities, very short follow-up periods, and the possibility of dementia subtype misclassification.
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