The Global Health Index conducted an online survey regarding pain and here Dr Tamara Hunter discusses, with Channel 9 in Perth, an analysis of the results regarding Australian’s and effective pain management. “The survey itself was quite interesting they looked at 7000 people, it was an online survey across 14 different countries and 4 continents, so it’s a really interesting snapshot of what pain might be in different cultures and different countries.” Going on to state that “the index itself took into consideration physical pain – so body pain frequency, the intensity and the duration. It also took into account the emotional interpretation of this and how it impacted on day-to-day living.”
The research indicated that Australian’s while frequent pain sufferers are actually the least frequent in vocalising it. Tamara states that “97% of Australians who answered this survey, said that ‘yes’ they had pain every day. Australians are among the least vocal when talking about their pain. Most commonly people suffer from musculoskeletal pain, lower back pain, neck pain, head pain and there were sorts of pains that are probably more lifestyle induced. Simple conservative measures perhaps like relaxation, stretching, massages and simple analgesia over-the-counter from the pharmacy but certainly those sorts of pain that cannot be overcome by these simple strategies and it’s important to see a healthcare practitioner.”
Tamara said that overall the survey “was a really interesting snapshot to see that 88% of people do suffer from some sort of pain on a daily and weekly basis and yet we actually have to work through it in our lives – so we do actually cope with it, we live with it.”