Summary
The key results of the UK National Pain Survey 2023, in collaboration with Chronic Pain Australia, the Advanced Pain Discovery Platform and Pain UK are now available!
The Alleviate Pain Data Hub, in collaboration with Chronic Pain Australia, the Advanced Pain Discovery Platform (APDP) and Pain UK, launched the UK National Pain Survey in November 2023. The survey was adapted from the National Pain Survey 2023 run by Chronic Pain Australia and was targeted at adults (18 years and older) living with chronic pain.
A total of 623 responses were received with 618 eligible responses analysed. Dr Chris Cole, Director of Alleviate Pain Data Hub, hosted a webinar today that highlighted the key findings from the survey. There was a lively discussion at the end which reflects the keen interest this this topic as chronic pain impacts so many people’s lives.
Chronic Pain (pain lasting for three months or more) affects 35-51% of the UK adult population and there remains an unmet need of recognition and treatment.
Although this is a relatively small sample size, which may not be fully representative of the general population of people living with pain, the following points were highlighted:
- There are clear gender differences in the lived experience of chronic pain and how it impacts on individuals. Women reported impacts and stigma affect them more often than men and reported they were treated less well by healthcare professionals.
- One in three to nearly two in three respondents used holistic methods to manage their pain.
- Respondents felt quite negative emotions around pain research.
- An unusually high proportion of respondents reported having seen a pain specialist and coupled with ~40% of respondents reporting thoughts of self-harm, and suicide, indicate that the responses received are not fully representative of the experiences of the general population of people living with pain.
The survey results are interesting and warrant further investigation. Several improvements will be made for future surveys to target a larger and more general population of people that live with pain, obtain further information on lived experience of pain, clarify the experience of accessing specialist pain clinics and explore in more detail what respondents mean by “self-management” of their chronic pain.
The full results will be published on our website soon.
The Alleviate Pain Data Hub is a £2M collaborative project funded by a consortium of funders including Versus Arthritis and the UK Medical Research Council. The project is led by the University of Dundee and involves partners from across the UK. Alleviate is one of nine HDR UK Health Data Research Hubs.
More information is available on the Alleviate Pain Data Hub website, subscribe to our newsletter for regular updates or join our community.