Originally published by our sister publication Pain Medicine News
By Myles Starr
Data from a study published in the Journal of Pain indicate that lifestyle changes associated with the COVID-19 pandemic may have helped relieve pain in American veterans.
“Veterans in our study generally demonstrated better pain outcomes than expected during the first year of COVID. Clinicians may want to have conversations with their patients about whether certain pandemic-related lifestyle changes were actually helpful and worth maintaining in the post-pandemic era,” said lead researcher Shaddy K. Saba, PhD, of the University of Southern California’s Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, in Los Angeles.
A majority (57.2%) of 1,230 study participants—veterans who reported high pain scores just before COVID-19 (February 2020)—reported decreasing pain over the subsequent 12 months (J Pain 2023;S1526-5900[23]00454-6. doi:10.1016/j.jpain.2023.06.018). Only 5.7% of participants reported increasing pain; 17.3% reported chronic pain; and 19.8% reported stable mild pain.
Researchers hypothesized that some members of their sample who started with high pain benefited from the pandemic-related lifestyle changes, like working from home and spending time with loved ones.
“It may be that some of those who had the highest pain had been working a physically demanding job that contributed to their pain, and when the pandemic hit, such physical demands decreased,” Dr. Saba said. “Or perhaps increased social interaction or support from loved ones buffered pain for those who were not living alone.”
In particular, participants from disadvantaged groups (i.e., women, racial and ethnic minorities, those with childhood trauma and those who faced loneliness) were less likely to cope well with pain. The researchers advocated for health systems to address the root causes of disparities in pain among disadvantaged groups.
The study was limited in that the sample was not representative of the full population of U.S. veterans and only recruited from outside of institutional settings.
Saba reported no relevant financial disclosures.
