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Meta-Analysis
. 2024 Apr 1;19(4):e0294830.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0294830. eCollection 2024.

The biopsychosocial factors associated with development of chronic musculoskeletal pain. An umbrella review and meta-analysis of observational systematic reviews

Michael Dunn  1   2   3 , Alison B Rushton  1   4 , Jai Mistry  2   4 , Andrew Soundy  1 , Nicola R Heneghan  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

The biopsychosocial factors associated with development of chronic musculoskeletal pain. An umbrella review and meta-analysis of observational systematic reviews

Michael Dunn et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this umbrella review was to establish which biopsychosocial factors are associated with development of chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Methods: Ovid Medline, Embase, Web of Science Core Collection, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, PsycINFO, CINAHL, PEDro, PROSPERO, Google Scholar and grey literature were searched from database inception to 4th April 2023. Systematic reviews of observational prospective longitudinal studies, including populations with <3 months (not chronic) musculoskeletal pain, investigating biopsychosocial factors that contribute to development of chronic (>3 months) musculoskeletal pain. Two reviewers searched the literature, assessed risk of bias (Assessing the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews-2), and evaluated quality (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) to provide an overall statement on the certainty of evidence for each biopsychosocial factor. Data analysis was performed through random effects meta-analysis (including meta-analysis of meta-analyses where possible) and descriptive synthesis.

Results: 13 systematic reviews were included comprising 185 original research studies (n = 489,644 participants). Thirty-four biopsychosocial factors are associated with development of chronic musculoskeletal pain. Meta-analyses of odds and/or likelihood ratios were possible for 25 biopsychosocial factors. There is moderate certainty evidence that smoking (OR 1.24 [95%CI, 1.14-1.34), fear avoidance (LR+ 2.11 [95%CI, 1.59-2.8]; LR- 0.5 [95%CI, 0.35-0.71]) poorer support networks (OR 1.21 [95%CI, 1.14-1.29]), lower socioeconomic status (OR 2.0 [95%CI, 1.64-2.42]), and high levels of pain (OR 5.61 [95%CI, 3.74-8.43]) are associated with development of chronic musculoskeletal pain (all P<0.001). Remaining factors are of low or very low certainty evidence.

Conclusions and relevance: There is moderate certainty evidence that smoking, fear avoidance, poorer support networks, lower socioeconomic status, and high levels of pain are associated with development of chronic musculoskeletal pain. High risk of bias was evident in most included reviews; this highlights the need for higher quality systematic reviews.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. PRISMA flow diagram.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Forest plot of meta-analyses on the natural log scale.
Presented on the natural log scale, where the number of null effect is 0 rather than 1, to ensure symmetrical representation of upper and lower 95% confidence intervals.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Theoretical combined odds ratio for development of CMP.
Based on risk aggregation methods [69]. Formula: (OR) + (OR) + (OR) + (OR) + (OR)–(total number of odds ratios) + 1.0.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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