Abstract
Recent temporal trends in the population prevalence of chronic pain in Canada on a
national and provincial level are unknown. Five cycles of the Canadian Community Health
Survey (2000/2001, 2007/2008, 2009/2010, 2011/2012, and 2013/2014) were used to derive
population-based estimates of the self-reported prevalence of chronic pain. Sensitivity
analyses examined chronic pain prevalence among those reporting no other chronic health
conditions. The prevalence of chronic pain among the general Canadian population increased
by almost 4.0% (to 21.0%) in 2011/2012, after being in the range of 15.7 to 17.2%
from 2000 to 2009/2010. The sudden increase in prevalence was observed 1) across all
provinces in Canada, 2) in all age categories, and 3) among Canadians with no other
chronic health conditions. Increasing chronic pain prevalence in Canada, most significantly
occurring between 2010 and 2012, and including among healthy and young individuals,
emphasizes the need for targeted research and resources to help alleviate chronic
pain.
Perspective
This study uncovers a significant increase in chronic pain prevalence in Canada between
2009/2010 and 2011/2012, driven by younger Canadians that are free of the most common
chronic health conditions. This discovery emphasizes the importance of further directed
research and resources to help mitigate the trend of increasing chronic pain.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 29, 2018
Accepted:
October 27,
2018
Received in revised form:
October 10,
2018
Received:
September 12,
2018
Footnotes
M.S.S. and J.K.K. contributed equally to this work.
Supported by a Blusson Integrated Cures Partnership seed grant (Principal Investigators: D.G.T.W. and J.K.K.). M.S.S. is supported by Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR). J.K.K. is a MSFHR and Rick Hansen Institute Scholar, and is also supported by Wings For Life, IRP, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. J.J.C. is a Society in Science Branco Weiss Postdoctoral Fellow and is supported by the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). C.R.J. is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation.
The authors report no disclosures (financial or otherwise) relevant to this manuscript.
Supplementary data accompanying this article are available online at www.jpain.org and www.sciencedirect.com.
Identification
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© 2018 by the American Pain Society
