Exploring the roots of chronic pain: Socioeconomic and environmental insights

Chronic pain is increasing as one of the greater global health disorders while social and environmental determinants remain underestimated. This study investigates how the national economic situation, civil strife, education, age, and gender determine the prevalence of chronic pain in various populations. Using a confidential cross-national health dataset, we applied multivariate regression analyses to determine the associations of chronic pain to macro- and micro-level determinants. The results show an inverse relation between national GDP and chronic pain prevalence, whereas civil conflict increases reported pain significantly. Among individual-level factors, increasing age and female gender are strong predictors of chronic pain; education does the contrary. Interaction analyses also show that education mitigates the effects of low income and conflict on pain outcomes, thus highlighting the social determinants' aspect. This underpins the need for multipronged strategies that, besides clinical intervention, address structural inequality, enhancement of the education system, and health with an eye to the conflict context. Together, socioeconomic and environmental factors enhance our understanding of the etiopathogenesis of chronic pain and directly go toward possible working interventions that can be managed in global health policy and practice.