Where Pain Lives: Chronic Pain Tougher to Manage in Poor Neighborhoods
She collaborated with the University of Michigan’s Tamera Hart Johnson on the recent study that extends their body of research into access to health and pain care, and health and pain disparities due to age, race/ethnicity, gender, class and geography.
“Our findings show an unequal burden of pain in blacks and among those living in poor neighborhoods among the 116 million adults who experience chronic pain,” Green says. “As the U.S. increasingly diversifies, and the prevalence of pain increases, it is critically important to examine health disparities due to pain in vulnerable populations.”
The Detrimental Effects of Chronic Pain
Being in pain is no fun. Being in a chronic, ongoing state of pain is even worse. Chronic pain, which is loosely defined as pain that has outlived its usefulness, can be a tremendously life-disrupting occurrence in a person’s life. Dealing with a chronic pain condition takes much of the luster off of life. It can make the simple chores and duties of everyday life exceedingly difficult to perform. It casts a dark shadow over the pain sufferer’s existence and life, and makes it hard to notice and enjoy the good, pleasant things that life has to offer.
As a thirty-three year old chronic pain sufferer, I can fully attest to the negative impact that chronic pain can have on a person’s life, especially on the life of a young person. When most people my age are in their physical primes and at the apex of their physical powers and functioning, I am saddled with a condition that significantly reduces my ability to function in a way that would be considered normal for a person my age. And that is a very hard situation for me to deal with.
My chronic pain condition centers around the effects of a bad hip. At the age of thirteen, I had surgery on both of my hips due to the effects of a childhood hip disorder. Over the years, my hip has become increasingly painful and stiff, the result of degenerative hip arthritis. Although I am still able to function well and perform most activities that I care to, I have to put up with a constant pain and discomfort caused by my faulty hip joint. And this has wreaked havoc on me psychologically, spiritually, and of course physically.
###
Source: University of Michigan Health System