The associations between age, familial occurrence of fibromyalgia, and symptom severity in fibromyalgia: a cross-sectional study from a Finnish health center

BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia is a functional syndrome characterized by musculoskeletal pain and a variety of associated symptoms. Previous research has shown that close relatives are at a higher risk of developing the syndrome compared to the general population. Previous findings also suggest that symptoms tend to decrease with age. Our primary objective is to examine whether having a close relative with fibromyalgia is associated with greater symptom severity among patients in primary care. In addition, we assess the relationship between age and symptom severity. METHODS: The study is based on a cross-sectional design. The data were collected at the Nokia Health Centre, Finland, in 2016. Patients meeting the ACR 2010 criteria were included in this study (n = 91). We used three validated questionnaires to assess disease severity (PSD, FIQ and EQ-VAS) and patient-reported information on fibromyalgia in a close relative. RESULTS: The independent-samples t-test was used to examine the association. Participants were divided into four age groups, and differences in symptom severity between age groups were assessed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). There were no statistically significant differences between family history and symptom severity, nor age groups and symptom severity. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant linear association between age and symptom severity, nor between symptom severity and family history of fibromyalgia. These findings remained unchanged after adjusting for family history. However, given the lack of statistical significance and our small sample size, these observations should be interpreted cautiously. CONCLUSIONS: Symptom severity and functional limitations appeared broadly similar across age groups in our sample, which may suggest that increasing age is not necessarily associated with substantial symptom relief. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution given the cross-sectional design and small sample size.