Veterans endure higher pain severity than nonveterans

[ronr]

This sounds to me like veterans as a whole are exposed to something more frequently than non-veterans that induces pain.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/314739.php

American veterans experience higher prevalence of pain and more severe pain than nonveterans, with young and middle-aged veterans suffering the most, according to a new analysis of the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) by the lead epidemiologist at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) at the National Institutes of Health. This survey provides the first national estimate of severe pain associated with painful health conditions in veterans and nonveterans and underscores the importance of sustaining efforts to monitor and manage pain among veterans.

"Our analysis showed that veterans were about 40 percent more likely to experience severe pain than nonveterans," said Richard L. Nahin, Ph.D., lead author of the analysis. "As well, younger veterans were substantially more likely to report suffering from severe pain than nonveterans, even after controlling for underlying demographic characteristics. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to helping veterans manage the impact of severe pain and related disability on daily activities."

The analysis is based on data from the 2010-2014 NHIS, in which 67,696 adults (6,647 veterans and 61,049 nonveterans) responded to questions about the persistence and intensity of self-reported pain during the three months prior to the survey. The majority of veteran participants were men (92.5 percent), while the majority of nonveteran participants were women (56.5 percent). The survey data did not identify any specific aspects of military service, including branch of the armed forces, years of service, or whether the veteran served in a combat role.

Among the findings from this analysis:

More veterans (65.5 percent) than nonveterans (56.4 percent) reported having pain in the previous three months.
A higher proportion of veterans (9.1 percent) reported having severe pain than nonveterans (6.3 percent).
Younger veterans (7.8 percent) were substantially more likely to report suffering from severe pain than nonveterans (3.2 percent) of similar ages, even after controlling for underlying demographic characteristics.
Veterans were more likely than nonveterans to have any back pain (32.8 percent), back pain with or without sciatica (12.2 percent, 20.5 percent), or joint pain (43.6 percent), but less likely to have jaw pain (3.6 percent) or migraines (10.0 percent).
The prevalence of severe pain was significantly higher in veterans with back pain (21.6 percent), jaw pain (37.5 percent), severe headaches or migraine (26.4 percent), and neck pain (27.7 percent) than in nonveterans with these conditions.
For nonveterans, as age increased, the prevalence of any pain and severe pain also increased; however, for veterans, those aged 50 to 59 were most likely to have severe pain, while the youngest and oldest groups were least likely to have severe pain.
Veterans aged 18-39 and 50-59 were more likely than nonveterans of the same ages to have any pain.
Veterans aged 18-39 were also more likely to have severe pain than nonveterans in the same age group.
However, veterans aged 70 or older were less likely to have severe pain than similarly aged nonveterans.
Male veterans (9.0 percent) were more likely to report severe pain than male nonveterans (4.7 percent); however, no significant difference was seen between the two female groups.

"These findings show that we still have much more to do to help our veterans who are suffering from pain," said Josephine P. Briggs, M.D., director of NCCIH. "This new knowledge can help inform effective health care strategies for veterans of all ages. More research is needed to generate additional evidence-based options for veterans managing pain. Over time this research may help nonveterans as well."

[denny]

The non vets were women.
Don't that kinda screw the pooch on this study?

[Olys45]

It is said that the average US Veteran in his 20's has the body of the average 40 year old...

Oly

[augoldminer]

Of the 8 good friends i went to high school with that went into the military during the vietnam war not one of us made it to 65 still able to work.

I was about the 5th one to have to quit working at age 52.

[ronr]

Lots of stuff in those shots they give with the gun in each arm at the same time.  Years later they find the side effects are crippling.

[denny]

Sm. pox came in a gun everything else in a needle-101st. Airborne.

Nit picky enouth for you?

[foxgrove]

Sadly, I can see the basic logic of that study being fairly easy to see... military folk live very physical lives, often in conditions that are less than ideal... training in conditions where injuries are not uncommon, deploying to areas where physical injury of one sort or another is almost part of the deal.  Add in to that all the chemicals that get tested on our troops like they're some sort of big bunch of guinea pigs.  Then lay on the unspoken motto of "bleed silently" and you've got the perfect scenario for higher than average physical pain.  Just makes sense.

It's a very sad commentary on a group of folks that should be given every opportunity and assistance to heal rather than being pigeonholed as weak or faking it and have to face years of proving their need over and over again.  No worries.. I don't live on this soap box, just visiting for things that really matter.  Our soldiers matter!!!!

[ronr]

I remember a gun in each arm at the same time.  Don't remember what all was in them but they did say they weren't full.

[wmoore]

Yes that shot gun fired five (shots) at a time, and we got it in both arms . I have a friend that I went in the service together, he was sent to C130s and became fly along crew chief, I went to jets over four engines only to be sent to a jets under two base. After retraining was sent to Transient Alert(to park anything that landed that was not from our base). So I got to work on anything in the inventory that happened to land at our base. So each plane might have had hazardous chemicals to each configuration.
He didn't get Fibro but I did.

So who knows . 

[denny]

Ofcourse he's 37 and your....not.
Things change. Though it seems like guns would come after needles.

[ronr]

The shot guns were held like a pistol and had a trigger on them.  As I remember they could give multiple different drugs at one time and then you step down the line to get another one in each arm at the same time.  

They are actually called "jet injectors" and were meant for mass injections, like hundreds or thousands of people at a time at a rate of up to 1,000 per hour, so as to reduce workload for the person giving the injections.  They have been repeatedly designed and one of the reasons is cross contamination.  It doesn't take much to get hepatitis from someone else.

Here is a couple of pages of info on them.
http://hcvets.com/data/occupational/munji/toc.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector

[denny]

Thanks Ron.
Wires do tend to get crossed.
Especially mine.

[Olys45]

Not only do I have to deal with the shot cocktail, but as a Hydro troop on the EC/KC-135's I virtually swam in JP-4 and JP-8. Only to find out after I Retired that exposure to high levels of noise and JP-8 induces a hearing loss with a synergistic effect than being exposed to just one... the kicker with it is that the hearing loss is more of a auditory dyslexia... you say 5687 and I hear 5678...

Oly

[countryboy]

Saw quite a few 'kids' bleed from the gun shots.  Didn't bother me, but then needles never have either.   

[foxgrove]

the kicker with it is that the hearing loss is more of a auditory dyslexia... you say 5687 and I hear 5678...

Funny thing is, I had to work for a while to figure out the difference between the two numbers... and I'm not even clinically dyslexic!