Frequency of physical activity during leisure time and variables related to pain and pain medication use in Spanish adults: A cross-sectional study

Background Physical inactivity has been identified as a risk factor for pain. Objective The main objective was to analyze the relationships between leisure time physical activity frequency (PAF) and pain prevalence, pain level, pain impairment, daily life pain impairment, and analgesic use in Spanish adults. In addition, risk factors such as sex, body mass index, marital status and social class were assessed for these pain variables in addition to PAF. Method Cross-sectional study based on data from the 2014 and 2020 European Health Surveys in Spain residents. The Chi-square test was used to analyze the relationship of dependence between the variables of interest. A correlation study calculating Spearman’s rho and a multiple logistic regression were performed to assess risk factors for pain variables. Results 20,113 and 19,196 subjects with a median age of 49 and 52 years old in 2014 and 2020 European Health Surveys, respectively, were analyzed. Dependence relationships were found between PAF and pain variables (p<0.001). The prevalence of: pain, high levels of pain, pain impairment, high level of pain impairment and use analgesic were higher in the inactive population than in the rest of the PAF levels (36.7–53%) vs (18.6–44.3%), p<0.05. Weak correlations were found between PAF and pain variables (-0.177 ≤ Rho ≤ -0.107) (p<0.001). Logistics regression show that being active or very active reduces the odds of pain, the intensity of pain and being affected in daily activities due to pain by 0.524 to 0.776 times. Likewise, being active or very active reduces the odds of taking pain medication by 0.661 to 0.755 times. Also age, low social class, being a woman, and being obese increase of odds of pain, pain affectation and use of analgesics in both surveys by 1.008 to 2.202 times. Conclusions Physical inactivity was related to a higher prevalence of: pain, higher levels of pain, higher pain involvement and higher analgesic use. In addition, lower social class, being female, older age, and obesity were factors for higher odds of pain, pain involvement, and analgesic use in both surveys.