To Örebro University

Chronic pain conditions can debut at any point in a person’s lifespan, although prevalence estimates peak in late adulthood. However, many adults report living with chronic pain for several decades, with some tracing this back to the early years of life. Given its impact, early life exposure to pain may be a risk factor for further health comorbid-ities and socioeconomic disadvantages. The studies in this dissertation examined differences in psychosocial outcomes between persons with early and later chronic pain onset. They also explored school absen-teeism due to pain in adolescents with recurrent pain as a pathway to accumulating risk over time. Data were gathered from a registry data-base and longitudinal surveys.

Study I (a retrospective design) found that those with an early life pain onset had a higher burden in terms of overall pain characteris-tics and psychosocial outcomes. Studies II and III (prospective longi-tudinal designs) showed that having at least one absenteeism due to pain was quite common (64%) among adolescents with recurrent pain, while about a quarter reported a more frequent rate. The risk factors for school absenteeism due to pain were sociodemographic factors, pain characteristics, stressors in the school context, and a his-tory of absenteeism due to pain at baseline (Study II). Further, about 1 in 5 adolescents with recurrent pain had persistently high absentee-ism due to pain throughout their high school education, and these in-dividuals perceived a poorer future work ability and overall future ex-pectancy compared to those with low to no absenteeism trajectory over time (Study III). These findings indicate that individuals with early life onset pain have a higher psychosocial burden of pain, with risk accumulation already noted in the early years of life.