75: Common Chronic Pain Types in Employed Persons

Topic: Basic Science
Subtopic: Non-specific to any diagnosis (including studies in healthy animals), Assessment and Measurement of Pain/Nociception

Background and Aims: Prevalence of pain in low-income and middle-income countries is consistent with Global Burden of Disease data, with higher rates in the elderly general population and workers versus general adult population. Acute and chronic Pain needs local understanding of its prevalence and main determinants to identify and implement the most appropriate treatment, control and prevention pathways for the population of interest. Currently no data are available on the individual types of chronic pain among general or working population in the country. We aimed to determine prevalence of individual types of chronic pain diagnoses in adult working population in the capital city.

Methods: Univariate retrospective analysis of non-randomly selected two commercial insurance companies’ databases was carried out. Selection criteria included adults >18 and positive employment status. Pain codes of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 10) were used to select patients’ pain diagnoses. Two-year crude period prevalence of chronic pain(CP) and point prevalence for the specific types of pain were calculated for 2023-2024 years. From demographic characteristics of chronic pain diagnoses gender factor was analyzed. Data were processed at the significance level p<0.05. Z test was employed to determine significance level. Odds ratio was calculated for gender variable association with CP.

Results: Number of patients with chronic pain in both companies composed 953619. Two-year period prevalence was 3.2% (p=0.0315). The majority of the patients were females (64.2%), two-year period CP prevalence among women was higher (3.6%) compared to males (2.5%). Musculoskeletal pain dominated. Low back pain ranked first followed by headache and joint pain. Women were more likely to have all types of pain then males (z =3 within 2.5-7.0). M/F ratio ranged between 1:1.2 - 1:1.9 but was similar in cases of back pain (1:1.7) and joint pain (1:1.8). Gender variable appeared a predictor of CP (OR=1.42; 95% CI (1.39, 1.46) (p<0.05).

Conclusions: 1. The two-year period prevalence of CP in the study working individuals was 3.2%. 2. Low back pain, joint pain and headache dominated; 3. Females were more likely to have CP as well as the specific types of CP than males; 4. Analytical epidemiological studies are needed to detect other major determinants of common types of CP in working population.

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Presenting Author: Nanuli Ninashvili
Submitting Author: Nanuli Ninashvili

Senior Author: Mikheil Shavdia

IASP 2026 Global Year theme of Neuropathic Pain: No

• Mikheil Shavdia: MD., Ph.D - Tbilisi State Medical Univerfsity
• Natia Shavdia: MD., Ph.D - Georgian National University
• Khatuna Tchaava: MD., Ph.D - Tbilisi State Medical University
• Nino Gegeshidze: MD., Ph.D - Tbilisi State Medical University
• Meri Tkemaladze: MD., MA - Tbilisi State Medical University.