Comorbidity of pain-associated disability and depressive symptoms in connection with sociodemographic variables: results from a cross-sectional epidemiological survey in Hungary

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of pain symptoms causing disabilities in every-day activities and their possible connection to depressive symptomatology. A representative sample of 12640 adults from the Hungarian population participated in a door-to-door survey about demographic variables, pain-associated disability, and depressive symptomatology. The overall prevalence of pain-associated disability was 32.7%, significantly lower in men, showing a significant increasing trend with age. A decreasing tendency in prevalence rates was observed in connection with higher educational and occupational status. Results revealed a 30.2% prevalence of depressive symptomatology among interviewees reporting pain-associated disabilities. The co-prevalence of depressive symptoms revealed a significant increasing trend with age and lower educational level. No significant gender difference was found in the co-occurrence of depressive symptoms. This survey concludes that pain symptoms constitute a substantial public health problem in the Hungarian population in forms of emerging disabilities and depression. Epidemiological studies offer a better understanding of sociodemographic differences in health status, and serve the better allocation of professional and economic resources.

The symptom checklist‐revised (SCL‐90‐R) is able to discriminate between simulation and fibromyalgia

“…Specifically, Group 2 showed a greater intensity of pain, older age, and lower educational level, and it might be that these variables were characteristic of patients who initiate a disability claim procedure. In fact, older age and lower educational level seem to be associated with a higher prevalence of disability in both chronic pain (Rethelyi, Berghammer, & Kopp, 2001) and other diseases (Eisner et al, 2006). In summary, the results of our study show that the index of the SCL-90-R, which has been previously considered as suggestive of response insincerity (PST), was not able to discriminate properly between patients and healthy volunteers who were asked to resemble a chronic pain disorder.…”

Chronic pain and depression among geriatric psychiatry inpatients

“…Chronic pain affects up to 50% of community-dwelling older adults (Gloth, 2001) and 80% of those in institutional settings (Ferrell, 1995). Prior research suggests that pain and depressive symptoms often co-occur in late-life (Sorkin et al, 1990;Herr et al, 1993;Turk et al, 1995;Rethelyi et al, 2001;Gagliese and Melzack, 2003). Indirect evidence suggests that pain may influence clinical attributes of late-life depression.…”

Old people in pain: A comparative study

“…The areas of concern when studying older people-demographics, social network, functional health status, fatigue, depression, and QOL-are similar to those that appear to be important among younger people in pain. [2][3][4] In general, pain is a common problem among older people 1 and some studies suggest that it tends to increase with increasing age. 5,6 Helme and Gibson 1 reviewed the differences in pain prevalence with age and identified a prevalence of 29-86% among those aged 75-84 and 40-79% among those aged 85 years and above.…”

“…For instance, functional limitations, fatigue, sleeping problems, and depression/depressed mood are common complaints in old age. 4,11 When also affected by pain, these problems may have a major impact on daily life. [12][13][14][15][16][17] Despite this, the relationship between pain and these comorbidities has not been well studied among older people, and especially not among the oldest old.…”