Antenatal socioeconomic status of childhood family and the risk of pain spreading (ROPS) in early and mid-adulthood - a descriptive study from the northern Finland birth cohort 1966

Eveliina Heikkala; Ina Rissanen; Christophe Tanguay-Sabourin; Etienne Vachon-Presseau; Jeremy Rui Chang; Arnold Yu Lok Wong; Jaro Karppinen; Petteri Oura

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.112014

Antenatal socioeconomic status of childhood family and the risk of pain spreading (ROPS) in early and mid-adulthood - a descriptive study from the northern Finland birth cohort 1966

J Psychosom Res. 2024 Dec 12:189:112014. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.112014. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Eveliina Heikkala¹, Ina Rissanen², Christophe Tanguay-Sabourin³, Etienne Vachon-Presseau⁴, Jeremy Rui Chang⁵, Arnold Yu Lok Wong⁵, Jaro Karppinen⁶, Petteri Oura⁷

Affiliations

¹ Research Unit of Population Health, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Medical Research Center Oulu, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland; Wellbeing Services County of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland. Electronic address: mia.heikkala@oulu.fi.
² Research Unit of Population Health, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Medical Research Center Oulu, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of General Practice, Amsterdam UMC and University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
³ Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada; Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
⁴ Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
⁵ Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, SAR, China.
⁶ Medical Research Center Oulu, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland; Research Unit of Health Sciences and Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; Rehabilitation Services of Wellbeing Services County of South Karelia, Lappeenranta, Finland.
⁷ Medical Research Center Oulu, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland; Research Unit of Health Sciences and Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.

PMID: 39674050
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.112014

Abstract

Objective: The Risk of Pain Spreading (ROPS) is a six-item tool capturing key data-driven prognostic factors for chronic pain and its spreading. Higher values on the ROPS indicate a higher risk. Early factors potentially associated with the ROPS are unknown. We aimed to examine the associations between antenatal socioeconomic status of childhood family (antenatal SES) and ROPS at ages 31 and 46 years.

Methods: The study was based on the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 and previously formulated latent clusters of antenatal family SES: Highest status (the reference), Small, Larger, Average wealth, and Rural families. The ROPS ranged from zero (the reference) to two or more points out of six. A multinomial regression model was used to identify antenatal SES clusters associated with ROPS.

Results: At 31 years (n = 8252), only the Larger families cluster was associated with having accumulated points (two or more) (Odds ratio [OR]: 1.46, 95 % Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.14-1.87) on the ROPS compared to the Highest status families cluster. Corresponding finding was observed at 46 years (n = 6245), but the Small families and Average wealth families clusters were also associated with this outcome. The association of Larger families cluster was, however, the strongest (OR 1.48, 95 % CI 1.16-1.89).

Conclusions: Offspring born into families with ≥5 members are likely to accumulate higher sums of key data-driven prognostic factors for worse pain across the life course until middle age. In future, associations between antenatal SES and pain would be important to be examined in a light of the ROPS.

Keywords: Antenatal; Descriptive study; Risk of pain spreading; Socioeconomic status; The northern Finland birth cohort 1966.