Europe in pain
A new study of 46,000 Europeans in 16 countries reveals that one of the worst health problems is chronic pain. This is an important issue, and deserves all the attention it gets in the press today. It also deserves being reported correctly. Reuters, and therefore CNN, messes up badly. The initial paragraph says,
A third of Europeans suffer pain every minute of their lives and chronic pain accounts for nearly 500 million lost working days a year, costing Europe 34 billion euros (21 billion pounds), according to a new survey.
For some reason, the journalist didn't see any discrepancy between this ('one third') and the next paragraph:
The poll of 46,000 people across 16 countries found that 19 percent of adults -- many aged under 50 -- were in constant pain, suffering for years without adequate pain relief.
The correct figure, and one other news sources (e.g. Guardian) managed to get correct, is thus approximately one fifth. So where did the 'third' come from? That came from the most painful European country to be in, maybe surprisingly, Norway.
The highest prevalence of chronic pain was in Norway where the number of people affected was around a third, or 30 percent, of those questioned. The lowest was in Spain at 11 percent.
The astonishing discrepancy between parceived pain level between countries indicates that mental and psychological issues also play an important role. And dare I be so bold as to suggest a link to an earlier study I wrote about here, saying Norwegians are also among the worst complainers in Europe, despite living in the richest country with an extensive welfare state and having some of the best health in the world.
There is a possible caveat to the study. The average age of the polled were fifty, and only adults were asked. So it is not correct at any rate to say this applies to a fifth (or third) of the whole population. Older people would have much more severe and painful health problems than the average. I'd like to know if the age breakdown was the same for all countries, and whether there was a representative collection. The study was, after all, sponsored by the analgesic company Mundipharma.
PS: BBC, generally of the better news sources for science and health news, has some different perspectives on the same study.
3:21:12 PM 
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