Photo Credit: Iuliia Burmistrova

Abdominal adipose tissue is associated with chronic musculoskeletal pain, according to a study published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine. Zemene Demelash Kifle, from the University of Tasmania in Australia, and colleagues used data from the UK Biobank to describe associations between MRI-derived abdominal adipose tissue and multisite, widespread, chronic musculoskeletal pain. Visceral adipose tissue and subcutaneous adipose tissue were quantified on abdominal MRI scans at two imaging visits. At corresponding visits, clinicians assessed pain in the neck/shoulder, back, hip, knee, or “all over the body.” The study included 32,409 participants (50.8% women). The researchers found a dose-response association of visceral adipose tissue, subcutaneous adipose tissue, and their ratio with the number of chronic pain sites in both women (OR, 2.04, 1.60, and 1.60 per standard deviation) and men (OR, 1.34, 1.39, and 1.13). Higher adipose tissue levels were also associated with increased odds of reporting chronic pain. The effect estimates of these adipose measures were relatively larger in women versus men.