LAGATAR24 NETWORK
Ranchi, Sept 26: Jharkhand is among the states with a higher level of pain prevalence among adults in India, according to the research journal Pain. The other states to accompany are Bengal, Puducherry, Odisha and Nagaland whereas the lowest levels were found in Mizoram, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.
The results were found during India’s first nationwide pain-mapping exercise where one in three people aged 45 or more live with pain and it hinders their daily activities.
Sanjay Mohanty, professor at the International Institute of Population Studies (IIPS), Mumbai and leader of the study told The Telegraph, “Pain causes distress to people and imposes costs on households and the economy, but it hasn’t drawn as much attention in public health practice or research in India as it should have.”
From 2.6 per cent in Mizoram to 22 per cent in Kerala and nearly 40 per cent in Bengal, the percentage of people with pain who limit their regular activities due to discomfort varies.
The first national and sub-national estimations of the prevalence of pain, the limitations of pain on everyday activities, and the levels of treatment have now been produced by Mohanty and his collaborators from academic institutions in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
In Bengal, 46.2 per cent of people reported experiencing pain. 39.8 per cent of those who reported being in pain said that it prevented them from engaging in regular activities, and 64% received pain medication.
However, in the research journal, the exact level for Jharkhand was not mentioned but it has been considered to be on the higher side along with the neighbouring state of West Bengal.
The Longitudinal Ageing Study, which the IIPS initiated in 2017–18 to systematically monitor the health of the nation’s ageing seniors, provided the data for the new pain study. The researchers relied on replies from 63,900 individuals for their study on pain.
They discovered that 15 per cent of people over the age of 45 reported having pain five or more days a week, 13 per cent reported having pain three or four days a week, and 9 per cent reported having pain just one or two days a week.
According to the research journal, 73 per cent of people in pain were on some treatment out of which nearly 40 per cent received oral or injectable analgesics. The remaining applied topical painkillers at the site of the pain whereas the rest received physiotherapy or psychotherapy.
