Abstract
BackgroundResearch indicates that ex- and current smokers report increased levels of bodily pain compared with never smokers. This could be secondary to smoking-related disease or psychological characteristics of smokers, or it could be a neurological or vascular effect of a period of regular smoking. AimsWe compared self-reported levels of bodily pain in daily, never daily and former daily smokers stratified by age group and adjusting for a wider range of covariates than has been undertaken to-date, including health status, neuroticism, anxiety and depression. Method223,537 UK respondents aged 16+ years were surveyed between 2009 and 2013 in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Lab UK Study. Respondents provided information on bodily pain, smoking status and a range of sociodemographic, health, behavioural and psychological characteristics. ResultsAfter adjusting for all covariates, in 16-34-year-olds, reported levels of bodily pain in former daily smokers (Badj = 0.72, 95% CI = 0.30, 1.15, p < .001) and daily smokers (Badj = 0.50, 95% CI = 0.18, 0.82, p < .01) were higher than in never daily smokers. Reported levels of bodily pain were also higher in former daily smokers than in never daily smokers in those aged 35–64 (Badj = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.69, 1.38, p < .001) and 65 + years (Badj = 1.65, 95% CI = 0.07, 3.24, p < .05). ConclusionsAfter adjusting for key characteristics, former daily smokers reported higher levels of bodily pain compared with never daily smokers at all ages. This raises the possibility that a period of smoking may have lasting effects on pain experiences.
Highlights
Cigarette smoking remains one of the leading causes of premature morbidity and mortality with 7 million people worldwide dying annually of a smoking-related disease (World Health Organization, 2017)
Of the 319,593 respondents with complete data on the sociodemographic characteristics, 25,466 (8.0%) respondents had missing data on bodily pain, self-rated health status and the frequency of binge drinking, 9384 (2.9%) respondents had missing data on neuroticism, symptoms of anxiety and symptoms of depression, and 96,055 (30.1%) respondents had missing data on the second item used to derive the smoking status variable (i.e. “During the past 30 days, on average how many cigarettes did you smoke per day?”), yielding a total of 223,537 respondents with complete data on all variables of interest
This study found that former daily and daily smokers in the UK reported higher levels of bodily pain than never daily smokers in each age group
Summary
Cigarette smoking remains one of the leading causes of premature morbidity and mortality with 7 million people worldwide dying annually of a smoking-related disease (World Health Organization, 2017). Compared with lifetime non-smokers, occasional and regular lifetime smokers in the 1946 British birth cohort study had an increased risk of reporting chronic widespread pain at the age of 68 years (Bendayan, Cooper, & Muthuri, 2018) This raises the possibility that a period of smoking at any time during the lifespan results in increased pain. Research indicates that ex- and current smokers report increased levels of bodily pain compared with never smokers This could be secondary to smoking-related disease or psychological characteristics of smokers, or it could be a neurological or vascular effect of a period of regular smoking. Conclusions: After adjusting for key characteristics, former daily smokers reported higher levels of bodily pain compared with never daily smokers at all ages This raises the possibility that a period of smoking may have lasting effects on pain experiences
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