Home »Unlabelled » Medical Humanities Blog

Medical Humanities Blog

On Pain as a Global Public Health Priority

Posted: 13 Oct 2011 06:15 AM PDT

Daniel S. Goldberg (East Carolina University) and Summer J. McGee (Center for Practical Bioethics & University of Kansas Medical Center) have a new article out in BMC Public Health entited Pain as a Global Health Priority. Like all papers in BMC journals, it is available full-text open-access. Here is the Abstract:

Background

Pain is an enormous problem globally.

Estimates suggest that 20% of adults suffer from pain globally and 10% are newly diagnosed with chronic pain each year. Nevertheless, the problem of pain has primarily been regarded as a medical problem, and has been little addressed by the field of public health.

Discussion

Despite the ubiquity of pain, whether acute, chronic or intermittent, public health scholars and practitioners have not addressed this issue as a public health problem. The importance of viewing pain through a public health lens allows one to understand pain as a multifaceted, interdisciplinary problem for which many of the causes are the social determinants of health. Addressing pain as a global public health issue will also aid in priority setting and formulating public health policy to address this problem, which, like most other chronic non-communicable diseases, is growing both in absolute numbers and in its inequitable distribution across the globe.

Summary

The prevalence, incidence, and vast social and health consequences of global pain requires that the public health community give due attention to this issue. Doing so will mean that health care providers and public health professionals will have a more comprehensive understanding of pain and the appropriate public health and social policy responses to this problem.

Comments, feedback, and suggestions are always welcome.