Bethesda, MD – Almost 50 million adults in the United States regularly experience chronic or severe pain, according to a study from the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 9,000 adults who participated in the 2012 National Health Interview Survey. From that data, they estimated about 126.1 million adults (55.7 percent) reported feeling some level of pain during the previous three months. That includes 14.4 million adults (6.4 percent) who reported the highest level of daily, chronic pain – and an additional 25.4 million adults (11.3 percent) who rated their pain at the next highest level.
“This report begins to answer calls for better national data on the nature and extent of the pain problem,” study author Dr. Richard L. Nahin said in a press release.
The study appeared in the August edition of the Journal of Pain, which is published by the American Pain Society.
