Evaluating weight-related discrimination as a stressor contributing to pain symptoms among individuals of higher body weight
Principal Investigator
Chronic pain is the leading cause of disability and a major public health concern in the United States with 20-25% of adults estimated to experience it. People with higher body weights are disproportionately affected by chronic pain as they experience more daily pain, higher rates of pain, and greater impairment from pain. It is widely accepted that pain is not just a biomedical problem, but also has psychosocial aspects. Discrimination may contribute to the onset and worsening of pain, and so weight discrimination might be an overlooked contributor to the relationship between pain and body weight. Weight discrimination causes a lot of chronic stress and is associated with chronic pain. However, this relationship is poorly understood because previous research has used small, cross-sectional samples that are primarily female and white.
Dr. Olson has previously found in a study of UK participants that men and women who were at least 50 years old with higher body mass index were predicted to have moderate to severe pain symptoms four years later, and this relationship was mediated by weight discrimination. The goal of the current project is to replicate these analyses with a sample of US participants from the Health and Retirement Study, and to investigate differences among people from marginalized racial and ethnic groups who are at greater risk for chronic pain. Advancing our understanding of the effect of weight discrimination on chronic pain could help develop prevention and treatment efforts to improve the health and well-being of people with higher body weight.
