More Americans say they're in pain. It’s a fascinating and disturbing medical mystery

An article on Vox about the growing number of Americans who are experiencing chronic pain interviews Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, assistant professor of sociology, who said it’s critical that people see chronic pain as the serious public health issue that it is. The article looks at her research, which showed that women were more likely to experience severe pain than men and people without a high school degree were nearly four times as likely to experience severe pain as someone with a graduate degree. “It turns out that there are two things at play. One is that pain predicts death, and people who report more severe pain are more likely to die and disappear from the survey averages,” she said. “…The second thing is reported pain levels are going up each year, meaning that even for the same age group, people on average are experiencing more pain in 2010 than they did in 1998.”

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http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/3/15/14903130/more-americans-pain-opioids-disturbing-medical-mystery