During 2019, military veterans aged ≥20 years were more likely to have chronic pain than were nonveterans (31.5% versus 20.1%). By age group, the likelihood of having chronic pain was higher among veterans than nonveterans for those aged 20–34 years (27.1% versus 9.4%), 35–49 years (27.7% versus 17.7%), and 50–64 years (37.2% versus 26.3%). Among those aged ≥65 years, prevalence of chronic pain did not differ significantly by veteran status (30.8% among veterans versus 31.0% among nonveterans). Among nonveterans, the prevalence of chronic pain increased with age. Among veterans, those aged 50–64 years had the highest prevalence of chronic pain.
Source: National Health Interview Survey, 2019. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis.htm.
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Footnotes
With 95% confidence intervals shown with error bars.
Based on the response to a survey question that asked “In the past 3 months, how often did you have pain? Would you say never, some days, most days, or every day?” Chronic pain was defined as pain on most days or every day in the past 3 months.
Estimates are based on household interviews of a sample of the civilian, noninstitutionalized U.S. population and are derived from the National Health Interview Survey Sample Adult component.