A summary of pain and pain-related variables in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.

Background: To study pain, data on pain characteristics, possible triggers and consequences - such as the impact of pain on people's lives - need to be available. When not collated, described and/or organised in a systematic manner, it can be difficult to assess how useful an existing dataset may be for one's project. This data note describes and categorises the complex and multi-modal indices of pain available in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

How Well Can We Measure Chronic Pain Impact in Existing Longitudinal Cohort Studies? Lessons Learned.

Multiple large longitudinal cohorts provide opportunities to address questions about predictors of pain and pain trajectories, even when not anticipated in the design of the historical databases. This focus article uses 2 empirical examples to illustrate the processes of assessing the measurement properties of data from large cohort studies to answer questions about pain. In both examples, data were screened to select candidate variables that captured the impact of chronic pain on self-care activities, productivity, and social activities.

Social Determinants and Consequences of Pain: Toward Multilevel, Intersectional, and Life Course Perspectives.

Despite wide endorsement of a biopsychosocial framework for pain, social aspects of pain remain rarely addressed in the context of pain prevention and management. In this review, we aim to 1) examine the broad scope of social determinants and consequences of pain and their interactions across multiple levels of organization, and 2) provide a framework synthesizing existing concepts and potential areas for future work on social aspects of pain, drawing upon socioecological, intersectional, and life course approaches. Integrating interdisciplinary theory and evidence, we outline pathways through which multilevel social factors and pain may affect each other over time.