1. P AIN E PIDEMIOLOGY By Simon Strauss This Session

2. PAIN PREVALENCE Overseas Studies Canadian telephone survey of 500 Households: Are you or any member of your family over 18 frequently troubled with pain? Yes 11% (Crook et al. Pain 1984) Swedish postal survey of 980 individuals: Age range 18-84. 33% No pain problem. 22% continuous obvious pain the majority with > 6months duration... (Brattberg et al. Pain 1989) Denmark postal survey, 4000 individuals: 30% persistent pain (Anderson et al. Pain 1987)

3. T he P revalence of P ain C omplaints in a G eneral P opulation: A n A ustralian S tudy Simon Strauss, Fiona Guthrie and Fred Nicolosi The results of a random telephone survey Brisbane, Australia. 1986.

4. Numbers of Individuals and Households Surveyed 500 265 614 Number of Households Contact Attempted Co-operative Households Total Number of Individuals over 15 years old 268 Co-operative 82 Refusals 112 No Answer 38 Other

5. Households plus Pain Responses 265 94 84 Co-operative Households 35% of Households with a least one member with a pain condition 31.7% of Households with at least one person with a pain condition in the last two weeks

6. Individuals Plus Pain Responses 614 117 101 Total number of Individuals 19.1% of Individuals with a pain condition 16.4% of Individuals with a pain condition in the last two weeks

7. Pain Prevalence by Age % Age

8. PAIN PREVALENCE RATE by Age and Sex % in Pain Age

9. PAIN PREVALENCE by Household Size % Household Size

10. CAUSE of Pain %

11. LOCATION of Most Severe Pain %

12. P AIN I NTENSITY %

13. D URATION Time Since First Occurrence of Pain %

14. FREQUENCY of Pain Occurrence %

15. TYPE of Health Professional Consulted %

16. Summary/Key Findings Pain prevalence for households was one in three Pain prevalence for individuals was one in five As age increases pain prevalence increases Females more than 30 years old have more pain than males Back pain most common problem Cause of pain usually spontaneous or unknown 45% severe pain, 55% mild - discomforting pain The majority experienced pain, daily or continuously, for three or more years. The majority received care from a medical practitioner The results of this survey are consistent with overseas studies.