Author(s)

Junko Mitoma¹, Masami Kitaoka¹, Hiroki Asakura¹, Enoch Olando Anyenda¹, Daisuke Hori¹, Nguyen Thi Thu Tao¹, Toshio Hamagishi¹, Koichiro Hayashi¹, Fumihiko Suzuki¹, Yukari Shimizu¹, Hiromasa Tsujiguchi¹, Yasuhiro Kambayashi¹, Yuri Hibino¹, Tadashi Konoshita², Takiko Sagara¹, Aki Shibata¹, Hiroyuki Nakamura¹

¹Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Ishikawa, Japan.
²Third Department of Internal Medicine, Fukui University School of Medicine, Fukui, Japan.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of chronic pain (CP) and the relationship between CP, especially headache adjusted for CP at other sites, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in middle-aged Japanese residents. We examined the prevalence of CP (defined as pain persisting for 3 months or more) and HRQoL (SF-36) in 1117 middle-aged residents of Japan. We assessed the eight dimensions of health status and the 3 component SF-36 summary score to evaluate HRQoL. The prevalence of CP was 15.3% among men and 15.1% among women. Multiple linear regression analysis demonstrated that lumbar pain (p < 0.001, β = -0.132), knee pain (p < 0.001, β = -0.115), foot pain (p = 0.042, β = -0.065), and age (p < 0.001, β = -0.154) were independently correlated with a lower physical component score (PCS). Older age (p< 0.001, β = 0.221) showed a significant positive correlation with mental component score (MCS), while neck/shoulder pain (p< 0.01, β = -0.096), knee pain (p < 0.001, β = -0.109), upper limb pain (p < 0.01, β = -0.098), and lumbar pain (p = 0.022, β = -0.077) all showed a significant negative correlation with MCS. The presence of chronic headache (p = 0.011, β = -0.082) was the only factor significantly correlated with a lower role component score (RCS). We identified a negative correlation between chronic headache and RCS, unlike the relation between musculoskeletal pain and PCS or MCS, suggesting that RCS was an independently influenced by CP differently from PCS or MCS in Japanese residents.

Quality of Life, Chronic Pain, Headache, SF-36, Pain

Mitoma, J. , Kitaoka, M. , Asakura, H. , Anyenda, E. , Hori, D. , Tao, N. , Hamagishi, T. , Hayashi, K. , Suzuki, F. , Shimizu, Y. , Tsujiguchi, H. , Kambayashi, Y. , Hibino, Y. , Konoshita, T. , Sagara, T. , Shibata, A. and Nakamura, H. (2016) Prevalence of Chronic Pain, Especially Headache, and Relationship with Health-Related Quality of Life in Middle-Aged Japanese Residents. Health, 8, 116-124. doi: 10.4236/health.2016.81014.