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Abstract
Background Although chronic pain was deleteriously related to single cardiometabolic diseases, the relationship between chronic pain and cardiometabolic multimorbidity remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association between chronic pain with the risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity.
Methods A prospective cohort study included 452 818 participants who were free of cardiometabolic multimorbidity at baseline. Chronic pain was assessed in diverse anatomical sites including the head, face, neck/shoulder, stomach/abdominal area, back, hip and knee or ‘all over the body’. Participants were classified into six groups according to the amount of chronic pain sites: no chronic pain, chronic pain at one, two, three and four or more sites, and those reporting pain ‘all over the body’. Cardiometabolic multimorbidity was defined as the occurrence of at least two cardiometabolic diseases, involving type 2 diabetes, ischaemic heart disease and stroke.
Results After a median follow-up of 13.7 years, 4445 participants developed cardiometabolic multimorbidity. Compared with individuals without chronic pain, those experiencing chronic pain in four or more sites were associated with a 1.82-fold (HR: 1.82, 95% CI: 1.61, 2.06) higher risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity. Pain distributed ‘all over the body’ was associated with a 59% (HR: 1.59, 95% CI: 1.30, 1.93) increased risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity Additionally, individuals who had chronic pain in both the head and stomach/abdomen showed the highest risk with cardiometabolic multimorbidity (HR: 1.88, 95% CI: 1.60, 2.20).
Conclusions Our findings suggested that there was an elevated risk of cardiometabolic multimorbidity associated with an increased amount of chronic pain sites.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are available from UK Biobank (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/), but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of UK Biobank.
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Data availability statement
Data are available upon reasonable request. The data that support the findings of this study are available from UK Biobank (https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/), but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. Data are however available from the authors upon reasonable request and with permission of UK Biobank.
Footnotes
XY and YC contributed equally.
Contributors YW conceptualised and designed the study. YW had full access to all data. XY performed the data analysis. XY drafted the manuscript. YC contributed to the revision of the manuscript and approved the final draft. All authors contributed to the intellectual content, and critical revisions to the drafts of the paper and approved the final version. YW is the guarantor.
Funding This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 72342017) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71910107004).
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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