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.