The following is a press release issued by The Pride Study on April 11, 2024:

Official Title

Localized and Widespread Chronic Pain in Sexual and Gender Minority People – An Analysis of The PRIDE Study

Community Title

LGBTQIA+ People’s Experiences with Chronic Pain

What Did We Do?

Chronic pain is defined as pain that a person experiences for three months or longer. Other studies have reported that up to 20% of American adults experience chronic pain, but this research has mainly been done with cisgender and heterosexual populations. The goal of our study was to identify and describe the experiences of chronic pain among LGBTQIA+ persons using data from 5,397 participants who completed The PRIDE Study’s 2022 Annual Questionnaire.

What Was New, Innovative, or Notable? 

This is one of the first studies to explore if chronic pain is widespread among LGBTQIA+ persons and in which part(s) of the body they experience chronic pain.

What Did We Learn? 

The findings from this study highlight that chronic pain in certain areas of the body and having chronic widespread pain are commonly seen in LGBTQIA+ participants in The PRIDE Study. The most common locations of chronic pain in LGBTQIA+ participants are the neck, upper back, and lower back. Approximately one-third of participants who identified as non-binary, another gender identity, a transgender man, queer, asexual/demisexual/gray ace, and another sexual orientation reported having chronic widespread pain.

What Does This Mean for Our Communities?

The findings of this study show that there are increased numbers of LGBTQIA+ persons reporting chronic pain (approximately 55%) compared to other studies with cisgender and heterosexual persons (approximately 20%). Our findings also highlight that chronic widespread pain is present in increased numbers of LGBTQIA+ persons (approximately 15-37%) compared to other studies with cisgender and heterosexual persons (approximately 10%). Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability and decreased quality of life. It is important for healthcare providers to understand there is an increased presence of chronic pain in LGBTQIA+ persons so that they can provide better support and healthcare.

What’s Next? 

Future studies are planned to understand what factors lead to increased chronic pain and chronic widespread pain in LGBTQIA+ persons.

Action Steps

See http://www.pridestudy.org/study for more information and to share this study with your friends and family.

If you are interested in conducting research related to LGBTQIA+ health, please learn more about collaborating with The PRIDE Study at http://pridestudy.org/collaborate.

Citation

Chadwick AL, Lisha NE, Lubensky ME, Dastur Z, Lunn MR, Obedin-Maliver J, Flentje A. Localized and widespread chronic pain in sexual and gender minority people—an analysis of the PRIDE study. Pain Medicine. 2024 March 26; pnae023. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/pm/pnae023. Epub ahead of print.

View the full paper at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4p94g4wt.

Photo used courtesy of Gender Spectrum