Chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain – prevalence, assessment and association with serum vitamin D in adults

Abstract

Chronic pain is a cause of physical, mental and economic burden to the society. The origin of chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain is unknown. The aim of the study was to assess the pain and its relationship with serum vitamin D, in adult patients suffering with chronic non-specific musculoskeletal pain. The study was carried out on 370 adult patients. Pain score was assessed for the patients. The mean pain score of all the respondents was 6.34 ± 2.02 on the scale of 0-10. More than half of the respondents reported no specific reason for increase in pain. Majority of the patients reported sleep disturbance, fatigue, decreased physical ability and negative mood alterations due to pain. Patients with higher pain scores had low serum vitamin D levels. It can be concluded that pain affects the life of the sufferers and that vitamin D deficiency can exacerbate pain.