The Effect of Obesity on Pain Severity and Pain Interference

Abstract

Aim: Obesity is one of the most prevalent comorbidities associated with chronic pain, which can severely interfere with daily living and increase utilization of clinical resources. We hypothesized that a higher level of obesity, measured by BMI, would be associated with increased pain severity (intensity) and interference (pain related disability). Materials & methods: Participant data was pulled from a multisite chronic pain outpatient database and categorized based on BMI. Results: A total of 2509 patients were included in the study. We found significant differences between BMI groups for all pain severity scores (worst, least, average, current) and total pain interference score. Obese patients had significantly higher scores than normal weight patients. Conclusion: We found obesity to be associated with increased pain severity and pain interference.

Keywords::

• chronic pain
• obesity
• outcome assessment
• pain management
• pain medicine

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Anesthesiology for their support.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

CE Inturrisi receives compensation as described in a 2017 license agreement between CE Inturrisi (and P Manfredi) and Relmada Therapeutics, Inc. for the development of compounds (including d-methadone) for the treatment of depression. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Clinical Study Evaluation Committee of Weill Cornell Medicine.