ArticleEuropean journal of pain (London, England)2025
Geographical disparities in fibromyalgia severity: An Italian study.
Article in European journal of pain (London, England), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- A scoping review on the characteristics of chronic pain registries.Pain reports · 2026Review
- The impact of sex and gender on Fibromyalgia Syndrome: data from the Italian Fibromyalgia Registry.Internal and emergency medicine · 2026Article
- The Effects of a 12-Week Home-Based Adapted Physical Activity Intervention on Health-Related Physical Fitness in Adult Women with Fibromyalgia Syndrome: An Interventional Field Study.Journal of functional morphology and kinesiology · 2026Article
- Seasonal variation influences fibromyalgia severity in terms of widespread pain among female patients: data from a large national registry.Clinical rheumatology · 2025Article
- Geographical disparities in fibromyalgia severity: An Italian study.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Effects of Repeated Exposure to Ambient Cold on the Development of Inflammatory Pain in a Rat Model of Knee Arthritis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
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Abstract
backgroundGeographic origin may represent a variable capable of influencing health status. This study aims to investigate the presence of differences of disease severity in Italian patients with fibromyalgia from different macro-regions.
methodsThis retrospective, cross-sectional study involved patients included in the Italian Fibromyalgia Registry. Three geographical macro-regions were identified, comprising patients from Northern Italy, Central Italy and Southern Italy. Clinical differences (evaluated through PolySymptomatic Distress Scale [PSD], revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire [FIQR] and modified Fibromyalgia Assessment Status [FASmod]) among the geographical macro-regions were studied using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Scheffé's test.
resultsA total of 6095 patients (5719 females and 376 males) were included, with 1957 from Northern Italy, 2979 from Central Italy and 1159 from Southern Italy. All studied clinical indices showed a trend indicative of greater disease severity in Southern Italy, followed by Northern Italy and then Central Italy (mean values for PSD: 19.97 ± 6.20 in Northern Italy, 18.61 ± 7.12 in Central Italy, 23.01 ± 5.66 in Souther Italy). These differences were statistically significant for the overall scores of all studied indices, evaluated with ANOVA (all p < 0.001) and in the head to head comparisons, evaluted with Scheffé's test.
conclusionsGeographic background is significantly associated with variations in the severity of fibromyalgia in Italian patients. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: This is the first study to demonstrate geographical origin-dependent intra-national differences in the severity of fibromyalgia. The results confirm the necessity of considering fibromyalgia within the context of the biopsychosocial model and of implementing healthcare policies targeted towards the most underserved regions.
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