ArticleRheumatology (Oxford, England)2009
Musculoskeletal pain is associated with a long-term increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular-related mortality.
Article in Rheumatology (Oxford, England), 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 72 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
72 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 140 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Risk of cancer incidence and mortality in patients with chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2026Pooled it
- The Effects of Anthroposophic Medicine in Chronic Pain Conditions: A Systematic Review.Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2023Pooled it
- The effectiveness of interventions aimed at increasing physical activity in adults with persistent musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2017Pooled it
- Chronic pain and mortality: a systematic review.PloS one · 2014Pooled it
- Centralized Pain Diagnoses in Older Adults With and Without Cancer.Journal of pain & palliative care pharmacotherapy · 2026Article
- Unravelling the spine-gut-pain connection: chronic musculoskeletal pain and digestive dysfunction in a large-scale population-based cohort of 110,685 individuals.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Article
- Increased mortality in people with chronic multisite pain and insomnia: the HUNT study.Sleep medicine: X · 2025Article
- In the Mouth or in the Gut? Innovation Through Implementing Oral and Gastrointestinal Health Science in Chronic Pain Management.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Association Between Cardiopulmonary Fitness and Degenerative Lumbar Spine Disease in Patients with Heart Failure: a Retrospective Study Using CPET.International journal of medical sciences · 2025Article
- Is the relationship between chronic pain and mortality causal? A propensity score analysis.Pain · 2025Article
- Common Non-Rheumatic Medical Conditions Mimicking Fibromyalgia: A Simple Framework for Differential Diagnosis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Natural Compounds for Preventing Age-Related Diseases and Cancers.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Insomnia disorder and cancer mortality in South Korea: a secondary analysis of musculoskeletal disease cohort.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2024Article
- Chronic widespread pain and cause of death: a 25-year follow-up study.Pain reports · 2024Article
- Personalized Multimodal Lifestyle Intervention as the Best-Evidenced Treatment for Chronic Pain: State-of-the-Art Clinical Perspective.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Review
- Observational
- Chronic Pain-Associated Cardiovascular Disease: The Role of Sympathetic Nerve Activity.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Are We Any Closer to Understanding How Chronic Pain Develops? A Systematic Search and Critical Narrative Review of Existing Chronic Pain Vulnerability Models.Journal of pain research · 2023Review
- Worse health-related quality of life, impaired functioning and psychiatric comorbidities are associated with excess mortality in patients with severe chronic pain.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2022Observational
12 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo test the hypothesis that individuals with regional and widespread pain disorders have an increased risk of mortality.
methodsWe conducted a prospective cohort study of 4515 adults. Subjects were an age- and sex-stratified sample who had participated in a population study of pain occurrence during 1996. Based on those reports subjects were classified as having no pain, regional pain or widespread pain. All subjects were identified on the National Health Service Central Register and followed up until April 2005, a total of 8.2 yrs, at which time information was obtained on vital status, and if applicable, date and cause of death. The relationship between pain status and subsequent death is expressed as mortality rate ratios with 95% CIs, adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity and practice.
resultsA total of 35.2% reported regional pain and 16.9% satisfied criteria for widespread pain. In comparison with those without pain, there was a 20% and 30% increased risk of dying over the follow-up period among subjects with regional and widespread pain, respectively. The specific causes of death in excess were cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, the mortality risk from both cancer and cardiovascular deaths was found to increase as the number of pain sites that subjects reported increased.
conclusionsThis study supports a previous observation that persons with regional and widespread pain are at an increased risk of cancer death. Possible mechanisms should be explored.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.