Pain's impact on eating patterns and inflammation: A case-control study

Pain is a widespread and troubling clinical and social problem with important effects on society and individuals. The purpose is to assess the relationship between pain and eating behavior, macro-micronutrient intake, and dietary inflammation index. The study was carried with a total of 80 patients, consisting of 40 patients diagnosed with pain and 40 patients not diagnosed with pain, who applied to a private hospital in Istanbul as outpatients with a questionnaire face-to-face consisting of questions about sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, pain-related information, Eating Attitude Test (EAT-19), and 24-hour food consumption record. The statistical analysis of the data was conducted with SPSS v27 package program. People who had pain had higher levels of disrupted eating attitudes than those who did not have pain. The "Bulimia" subfactor mean score of the EAT-19 was higher in those with pain (P < .05). No difference was found between the case-control groups regarding the mean dietary inflammation index (DII) score and energy, macro- and micronutrient consumption values (P > .05). No difference was detected between the case-control groups with disrupted eating attitudes regarding the median DII score (P > .05). The median DII score was significantly higher in individuals with pain and normal eating attitudes than in those without pain and with disrupted eating attitudes (P < .05). There is a relationship between pain, eating attitudes, and DII, the median DII score of those who had pain and had normal eating attitudes was higher.