Skip to navigation Skip to main content Skip to footer

Approved Research

Impact of multisite musculoskeletal pain and its mechanism

Principal Investigator: Dr Feng Pan
Approved Research ID: 68213
Approval date: January 12th 2021

Lay summary

Musculoskeletal pain is common and typically occurs at multiple sites with 41-75% of persons from various studies reporting pain occurring at two or more sites. Previous studies including our own have shown that multisite musculoskeletal pain (MMSP) has a worse prognosis and a more detrimental impact on health outcomes than single-site pain. Musculoskeletal pain is a complex phenomenon which is affected by factors across multiple domains - peripheral, metabolic, psychological, and neurological; however, how these factors are linked to MMSP remains unknown.

Therefore, the aims of this project include:

1) To validate and extend our previous findings whether individuals having greater number of painful musculoskeletal pain had an increased risk of sleep problems, fractures and falls risk using UK-Biobank resource.

2) To examine whether individuals having greater number of painful musculoskeletal pain had a greater loss of cognitive function, higher mortality and greater reported use of opioid medications.

3) To examine the relationship between brain structure, metabolic biomarkers (including serum and liver MRI) and MMSP. This project will also explore the role of these factors in developing MMSP when online follow-up of pain experience data are available.

This project will take up to three years to complete.

The aims of this project include:

1) To validate and extend our previous findings of the association of multisite musculoskeletal pain with sleep, fractures, falls risk using UK-Biobank resource.

2) To examine the impact of multisite musculoskeletal pain on cognitive function, mortality and opioid medications use.

3) To examine the relationship between brain structure, metabolic biomarkers (including serum and liver MRI) and multisite musculoskeletal pain. To explore the role of these factors in developing multisite musculoskeletal pain when online follow-up of pain experience data are available.

 

The aims of this project include:

1) To validate and extend our previous findings of the association of multisite musculoskeletal pain with sleep, fractures, falls risk using UK-Biobank resource.

2) To examine the impact of multisite musculoskeletal pain on cognitive function, mortality and opioid medications use.

3) To examine the relationship between brain structure, metabolic biomarkers (including serum and liver MRI) and multisite musculoskeletal pain. To explore the role of these factors in developing multisite musculoskeletal pain when online follow-up of pain experience data are available.

4) To address the impact of multisite musculoskeletal pain on a range of health outcomes (e.g. joint replacement) and their early clinical manifestations, and to determine the causality and underlying mechanisms of the links.

5) (A) To extend our previous findings of the association of chronic pain conditions with sleep, fractures, and fall risk using UK-Biobank resources; (B) To examine the impact of chronic pain conditions on cognitive function, mortality and opioid medication use; (C) To examine the associations of brain structure and metabolic biomarkers (including serum and liver MRI) with chronic pain conditions. (D) To explore the role of these factors in developing chronic pain conditions when online follow-up of pain experience data are available. (F) To address the impact of chronic pain conditions on a range of health outcomes (e.g. joint replacement) and their early clinical manifestations, and to determine the causality and underlying mechanisms of the links.