A Western University study claims that uneducated Americans that do not access higher-level education experience more pain than their educated counterparts.
Imagine a scenario where people experience different degrees of pain based on the level of education. It is the conclusion researchers from Western University arrived at. Over half of all adults in the U.S experience chronic pain. Researchers believe that the new study will provide a powerful template on which policymakers and healthcare providers can target pain relief more effectively.
“Pain affects the quality of life of individuals and their families. It is an incredibly important health condition that we must try to understand better,” stated Anna Zajacova, a sociology professor at Western University.
The researchers evaluated data from the U.S National Health Interview Survey which was collected between 2010 and 2017. They found that Americans between 30 and 49 years old reported experiencing pain at least in one of the following areas; migraine/headache, face/jaw, neck, joints, and lower back. American adults that did not pursue university education felt higher amounts of pain that American graduates.
Deciphering the findings
The researchers also found that the results for Spanish adults because they did not show any correlation between the level of education and the level of pain. The findings also did not show that the higher the level of education, the less the pain.
Adult subjects that hold a university degree were observed to experience lower pain with the pain intensity at 45 percent. High school graduates experienced 50.9 percent intensity while high school dropouts experienced 51.5 percent pain intensity.
The cost of pain can be surprisingly high. Analysts claim that over $100 billion worth of productivity gets lost in the U.S annually due to pain-related disruptions. Scientists are not yet sure whether the findings of the study reflect any psychological characteristics. They also think that the higher level of pain might be manifesting as a result of the stigma or trauma of being a college dropout. The findings also indicate that there is a need to conduct more research on this area to have a better understanding of what is truly at play.
