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. 2019 Oct 17;14(10):e0224084.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224084. eCollection 2019.

Epidemiology of chronic pain in Ukraine: Findings from the World Mental Health Survey

Anna Xu  1   2 , Elizabeth Hilton  3 , Riley Arkema  4 , Nathan L Tintle  5 , Luralyn M Helming  4
Affiliations

Epidemiology of chronic pain in Ukraine: Findings from the World Mental Health Survey

Anna Xu et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Chronic pain can pose a serious challenge in everyday life for many individuals globally, especially in developing countries, but studies explicitly exploring risk factors of chronic pain beyond demographic characteristics using survey data have been scarce. To address this problem, this study analyzed World Health Organization data on chronic pain in Ukraine to explore demographic, psychological, and treatment perception-related risk factors to chronic pain. We replicated previous reports of older age, female sex, married status, inadequate financial resources, and comorbidity of other physical conditions as significant demographic risk factors for chronic pain diagnosis but not necessarily for severe pain. We also found evidence for psychological risk factors and treatment perceptions as significant predictors for chronic pain diagnosis and its severity. These results provide a first step in examining beyond demographic risk factors for chronic pain diagnosis and severity and, instead, assessing potential psychological risk factors.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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