Psychosocial experiences among female and male primary care patients with and without pain

Abstract Objective: The study examined the psychosocial characteristics and experiences of female and male primary care patients with and without pain with particular interest in gender differences and whether females were more vulnerable to pain than males. Patients and methods: A total of 1122 primary care patients from 20 randomly selected primary care centres in Stockholm were assessed cross-sectionally on various variables during 15 consecutive days. The data were examined with chi-square tests, ANOVAs, Dunn–Bonferroni tests and multivariate logistic/linear regression analyses. Results: Pain patients compared to pain-free patients reported more depression, burn-out, job demands, less job control, more job strain, and financial problems, with no gender differences in general. These constructs were associated with pain in the regressions and some of them were inter-related. Factors such as sick-leave were also important. Female pain patients had a more severe clinical profile (e.g. pain intensity) than...