Is Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Adulthood Related to Factors at Birth? A Population-Based Case-Control Study of Young Adults

Chronic musculoskeletal pain affects one-third of the general population, yet apart from occupational and psychosocial risk factors, relatively little is known about its aetiology. Exposures in very early life may influence the development of chronic pain as a young adult. However, unlike the study of early life influences on some other common chronic diseases, little research has been conducted in this area. Using a nested case-control analysis of a population-based cross-sectional survey, this pilot study investigated associations of selected birth-related factors with chronic pain in young adults living in North Staffordshire. 858 participants responded to the survey (adjusted response 37%). 580 were included in the case-control analysis. No association was found between prematurity (OR: 0.14 95% CI: 0.0, 1.1), foetal distress (OR: 0.80 95% CI: 0.4, 1.8), artificial commencement of labour (OR: 1.04 95% CI: 0.6, 1.8), or non-vaginal delivery (OR: 1.03 95% CI: 0.5, 2.0) and chronic pain at age 18–25 years. Associations were observed between pain status and low birth weight (OR: 2.17 95% CI: 0.6, 7.0) and neonatal ITU admission (OR: 1.63 95% CI: 0.4, 7.4). Although these estimates were not statistically significant in this exploratory study they may be worthy of further investigation.