New Study Documents a Shocking Chronic Pain Burden for Sexual and Gender Minorities

Abstract

A ground-breaking study recently drew headlines with the conclusion that members of several sexual and gender minorities-gay, lesbian, bisexual, and "other" groups-have starkly elevated levels of chronic pain, compared to their straight peers. And the levels of pain varied dramatically by sexual and gender group."Americans who self-identify as bisexual or "something else" have the highest general chronic pain prevalence (23.7% and 27.0%, respectively), compared with 21.7% among gay/lesbian and 17.2% straight adults. For pain in 3+ sites, disparities are even larger: Age-adjusted prevalence is over twice as high among adults who self-identify as bisexual or "something else" and 50% higher among gay/lesbian, compared with straight adults," according to sociologist and population scientist Anna Zajacova, PhD, of the University of Western Ontario and colleagues. (See Zajacova et al., 2023.) The factor most strongly associated with chronic pain in this study was psychological distress.These conclusions come as a surprise. Similar results on the relationship of chronic pain to sexual/gender status haven't been reported before.So why hasn't this relationship shown up in other previous studies? Zajacova offered one potential explanation in an accompanying statement from her university.In that article, Zajacova explained that pain generally hasn't been studied extensively from a population perspective because it was assumed to be a symptom of something else."However, chronic pain is now widely understood as a condition in its own right. It's an important condition, too, given its high burden in the population and tremendous impact on individuals' quality of life," said Zajacova. "In fact, we view pain as an overall holistic measure of physical and psychological well-being at the population level." (See Mackay, 2023.