Observational studyThe journal of pain2025
Why is low educational attainment linked to worse pain and function in fibromyalgia?
Observational study in The journal of pain, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reference ranges and influencing factors of pressure pain threshold in Chinese patients with knee osteoarthritis.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- The Role of Subjective Well-Being in the Relationship Between Illness Invalidation, Acceptance, and Functioning in Fibromyalgia.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exploring chronic pain: demographic and social determinants of health insights in Maine.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Exploring Emotional Conflicts and Pain Experience in Patients with Non-Specific Chronic Neck Pain: A Qualitative Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring the Multifactorial Predictors of Pain in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain: A Regression-Based Study.Journal of pain research · 2025Article
- Internalized stigma mediates the relationship between pelvic pain severity and both depression and anxiety in women with chronic pelvic pain.Women's health (London, England)Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Lower educational attainment has been linked to worse pain in individuals with chronic pain, but the mechanisms of this relationship are not fully elucidated. This observational study analyzed the relationship between educational attainment and pain in patients with fibromyalgia (FM) and the potential psychological mechanisms driving this relationship. We hypothesized that (1) lower educational attainment would be associated with greater pain intensity and interference, and that (2) concerns about pain (CAP), anxiety, and depression would mediate the relationship between educational attainment and pain. A total of 119 adults (93.3% female, 79.7% White, Mage=50.4) with FM completed questionnaires including demographics, Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales (HADS). Pearson correlations and bootstrapped mediation analyses were conducted to examine the relationships among education, psychological variables, and pain variables. Education was inversely correlated with pain intensity and interference, CAP, anxiety, and depression (p<.05). CAP significantly mediated the relationship between education and pain intensity (95% CI [0.151, 0.026]), while both CAP and depression mediated the effects of education on pain interference (95% CI [0.195, -0.025]; 95% CI [-0.163, -0.004]). However, anxiety did not mediate either relationship. These findings suggest that greater CAP, and in part depression, may be possible mechanisms in the relationships between lower educational attainment and worse pain intensity and interference. This work has important implications in reducing pain disparities and provides direction for psychological treatment, suggesting that both depression and CAP may be critical targets especially for people with lower education attainment. PERSPECTIVES: This study examined the relationship between educational attainment, psychological variables, and pain. Results have implications for psychological intervention aimed at concerns about pain and depression, especially among individuals with low educational attainment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.