Pain Effects

Your Most Valued Resource

 Quotes from the American Academy of Pain Medicine:

• An estimated 20% of American adults (42 million people) report that pain or physical discomfort disrupts their sleep a few nights a week or more. - Sleep in America Poll in 2000 by the National Sleep Foundation  

• Back pain is the leading cause of disability in Americans under 45 years old. More than 26 million Americans between the ages of 20-64 experience frequent back pain. - National Centers for Health Statistics, Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans 2006, Special Feature: Pain. CDC link.

• Adults with low back pain are often in worse physical and mental health than people who do not have low back pain. Adults reporting low back pain were three times as likely to be in fair or poor health and more than four times as likely to experience serious psychological distress as people without low back pain. - National Centers for Health Statistics, Chartbook on Trends in the Health of Americans 2006, Special Feature: Pain. CDC link.

• In 2011, at least 100 million adult Americans have reported common chronic pain conditions. - Institute of Medicine Report from the Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care, and Education: Relieving Pain in America, A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research. The National Academies Press, 2011.

• Pain is a significant public health problem that costs society at least $560-$635 billion annually (an amount equal to about $2,000.00 for everyone living in the U.S.) - Institute of Medicine Report from the Committee on Advancing Pain Research, Care, and Education: Relieving Pain in America, A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education and Research. The National Academies Press, 2011.

• Lost productive time from common painful conditions was estimated to be $61.2 billion per year, while 76.6% of lost productive time was explained by reduced work performance, not absenteeism. - Results from the American Productivity Audit. National Institute of Health link 

• Overall, workers lost an average of 4.6 hours per week of productive time due to a pain condition. Other musculoskeletal pain (5.5 hours/week) and arthritis or back pain (5.2 hours/week) produced the largest amounts of lost productive time. Headache produced, on average, 3.5 hours of lost productive time per week. - Results from the American Productivity Audit. National Institute of Health link