Widespread Pain Related to Common Chronic Pains in Young Women

Objective: To report the prevalence of widespread pain/fibromyalgia (FM), regional chronic pain (RCP) and 5 common chronic pains (head, face, low back, chest and stomach) in a biracial population of young women. Methods: 1227 women, 22-24 years old, 52% African-American and 48% Caucasian who participated in the longitudinal US National Heart Lung & Blood Institute's Growth & Health Study in California and Ohio were administered questionnaires derived from the Life Pain History Questionnaire (LPHQ) (von Korff et al, 1988) for 5 common locations: head, face, low back, chest and stomach and from the London Fibromyalgia Epidemiology Study Screening Questionnaires (LFES-SQ) (White, 1999). LPHQ reported chronic pain in the last six months. Based on the LFES-SQ of reported body pain widespread pain (FM) included both left and right sides, both above and below waistline, and the axial skeletal region. RCP was defined as axial pain plus 1-3 other body regions. Pain of ³1 (on 0-10 scale) had to be present at the interview and manifested for at least 3 months. Chi-square, Mantel-Haenszel, and logistic regression tests assessed associations. Results: Overall 5% reported pains corresponding to widespread pain; 11% corresponding to RCP. All 5 chronic pain prevalences were significantly associated with increases along the widespread pain gradient from no body pain to RCP to FM even after adjusting for race, education and geographic location (chi-square>24, p<.001); low back pain had the strongest association. The prevalence of facial and stomach chronic pains was significantly higher in Caucasians than in African-Americans adjusting for parental education, participant SES, and geographical location (p£.006). Conclusions: 5 chronic pain prevalances increased along the gradient of increasing spread of body pain. Facial and stomach pain prevalences differ by race. Support: US-DHHS/NIH/NIDCR-R01-DE13487