RESEARCH ARTICLE Chronic Pain in the Japanese Community— Prevalence, Characteristics and Impact on Quality of Life

Background Chronic pain is recognized as a public health problem that affects the general population physically, psychologically, and socially. However, there is little knowledge about the asso-ciated factors of chronic pain, such as the influence of weather, family structure, daily exer-cise, and work status. Objectives This survey had three aims: 1) to estimate the prevalence of chronic pain in Japan, 2) to an-alyze these associated factors, and 3) to evaluate the social burden due to chronic pain. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional postal survey in a sample of 6000 adults aged20 years. The response rate was 43.8%. Results The mean age of the respondents was 57.7 years (range 20–99 years); 39.3%met the crite-ria for chronic pain (lasting3 months). Approximately a quarter of the respondents re-ported that their chronic pain was adversely influenced by bad weather and also oncoming bad weather. Risk factors for chronic pain, as determined by a logistic regression model, included being an older female, being unemployed, living alone, and no daily exercise. Indi-viduals with chronic pain showed significantly lower quality of life and significantly higher psychological distress scores than those without chronic pain. The mean annual duration of absence from work of working-age respondents was 9.6 days (range 1–365 days)