ArticleThe lancet. Healthy longevity2026
International trends and social disparities in pain of adults aged 50 years and older in 22 countries across Europe, Asia, and the Americas: a longitudinal population-based study.
Article in The lancet. Healthy longevity, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe experience of pain is highly prevalent among older adults worldwide. This study aimed to compare trends and social disparities in pain for middle aged and older adults (ie, those aged ≥50 years) across countries to help identify high-pain or high-disparity hotspots needing intervention, and low-pain or low-disparity locations or timepoints from which policy and practice lessons could be drawn.
methodsCountry-specific pain trends were estimated using longitudinal logistic regressions on harmonised data for 212 904 adults aged older than 50 years observed repeatedly from 1998 to 2018 in 22 countries across three continents.
findingsUnadjusted pain prevalence was 43·21% (95% CI 43·10-43·33) across all countries and years pooled. Instrument-adjusted prevalence ranged from 26·70% (95% CI 25·52-27·88; Netherlands, 2006) to 59·20% (58·02-60·38; France, 2016). Over the decade 2006-16, when most countries were observed, prevalence substantially increased in 15 countries (12·01 percentage points), decreased in China (6·60 percentage points), and remained steady in six countries. Prevalence was higher among women, those with less education (ie, completed less than high school), and older respondents (those aged >60 years), though disparities varied substantially across countries. Disparities widened over time in some countries (eg, Spain), but remained stable, declined, or reversed in others (eg, Sweden). In 2016, Denmark had the lowest overall pain disparity index, while South Korea had the highest.
interpretationThere was a substantial increase in pain prevalence among middle aged and older adults in most countries studied. Cross-country, temporal, and sociodemographic variation indicates pain should be treated as a population public health issue.
fundingAgencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, National Institute on Aging.
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.