Dietary inflammatory index and chronic pain in an adult, non-institutionalized civilian population of the US

Enrico, Valerio Tonelli (2017) Dietary inflammatory index and chronic pain in an adult, non-institutionalized civilian population of the US. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Chronic pain (CP) has a high prevalence worldwide. Yet, the mechanisms behind it are largely to be explained. One possible cause of CP is inflammation. The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) assesses the tendency of diet to cause inflammation. The association between DII and presence of chronic pain in neck and/or lower back was studied, as well as pain duration longer than 24 hours and longer than 3 months. The hypothesis was that higher levels of DII are associated with increased pain presence and duration. A population of 3966 individual taken from the 2003-2004 NHANES survey was considered. Baseline characteristics were analyzed with chi-square test and t-test. Univariate and multivariable analysis were performed using logistic regressions. Manual selection method was used for final model construction. The analyses performed were cross sectional. DII levels were deemed significantly associated with presence of pain in lower back and/or neck in the final model (p= 0.0346; Odds Ratio (OR)= 1.031; 95% Confidence Interval (CI)= 1.002 - 1.060) which included another four relevant covariates. DII levels were also deemed significant in association with pain longer than 24 hours (p=<.0001). Lastly, DII levels were significantly associated with pain lasting longer than 3 months in the univariate analysis (p= 0.0164; OR=1.012 95%CI=1.042 - 1.124), although this association was lost in the multivariable analysis (p= 0.2956). From the results of this study, it appears that higher levels of DII (as a result of a pro-inflammatory diet) may play a role in the etiology mechanism of chronic pain and possibly in its perpetration.

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