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fhea.com Fitzgerald Health Education Associates, Inc., August 2015
pain, from brief to more lasting and ranging from minor to
more severe. While it was not unexpected that most peo-
ple have experienced at least some pain in the 3-month
period surveyed, nearly 40 million adults (17.6%) experi-
ence severe levels of pain and 25.3 million adults (11.2%)
had pain every day for the preceding 3 months. Those
with severe pain are also likely to have worse health.
The data were from the 2012 National Health Inter-
view Survey, which was funded by the National Insti-
tutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and
Integrative Health (NCCIH). The findings were based on
combined data from 8781 American adults. Among the
findings were the following:
• An estimated 23.4 million US adults (10.3%) experi-
ence a lot of pain.
• An estimated 126 million adults (55.7%) reported
some type of pain in the 3 months prior to the survey.
• Adults in the two groups with the most severe pain
were likely to have worse health status and suffer
from more disability than those with less severe pain.
• There were associations between pain severity and
race, ethnicity, language preference, gender, and age.
Women, older people, and non-Hispanics were more
likely to report any pain; Asians were less likely.
"The number of people who suffer from severe and
lasting pain is striking," said Josephine Briggs, MD, direc-
tor of NCCIH. The new findings can help shape future re-
search and how pain interventions are targeted.
For more information,
click here .
Lyme Disease Greatly Underreported, New
Studies Suggest
The number of Americans diagnosed each year with Lyme
disease is 300,000, according to preliminary estimates from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The estimate is based on findings from three ongoing
CDC studies that use different methods to measure Lyme
disease infection. The first project analyzes health claims
information for approximately 22 million insured people
annually for 6 years; the second is based on a survey of
clinical laboratories; and the third project analyzes self-
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