Chronic pain and mortality risk among middle-age and older Japanese: the Shika town cohort study

The relationship between chronic pain (CP) and mortality among the Japanese elderly population remains unclear due to limited literature.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between CP and mortality, stratified by age and sex, using longitudinal cohort data from the Shika Study.

This was a longitudinal study with 2849 participants aged ≥40 years (44.75% males and 55.25% females). Chronic pain, age, sex, tobacco smoking, height, and weight and self-reported information on medical conditions such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes mellitus were assessed using a CP questionnaire.

The baseline mean age (years) was 64.00 ± 12.21 for men and 65.44 ± 13.12 for women. Among all participants, the mortality rate was significantly higher in males than in females (12.40% vs 7.80%; P < 0.001). The mortality rates among those with chronic headache (alive = 1.40% vs dead = 9.10%; P = 0.004) and neck/shoulder/elbow/hand pain (alive = 15.50% vs dead = 31.80%; P = 0.038) were significantly higher among the dead group compared to those alive in women. The odds of mortality associated with chronic headache (9.238 [95% CI 1.729-49.352]; P = 0.009) and neck/shoulder/elbow/hand pain (adjusted odd ratio 2.586 [95% CI 1.012-6.608]; P = 0.047) were significantly higher in females aged ≤74 years but not in males.

Chronic headache and neck/shoulder/elbow/hand pain were found to be independently associated with mortality irrespective of other covariates among Japanese rural women aged ≤74 years in the Shika town longitudinal cohort study, Japan. This study potentially highlights the public health importance and negative impact of CP in women aged ≤74 years.