Table 1.

Pain prevalence levels and differences by sexual identity

	Pain prevalence levels		Pain prevalence differences		Respondent N and %
	Prevalence	95% CI	Percentage-point difference¹	Relative difference¹	Number of respondents²	Weighted percentage²
PANEL A. Pain in 3+ sites
Straight	11.5	(11.3, 11.7)	--	--	129,426	96.65
Gay/lesbian	16.1	(14.3, 18.1)	4.6	1.40^*** (1.26, 1.56)	2,743	1.86
Bisexual	20.1	(17.6, 22.8)	8.6	1.75^*** (1.53, 1.99)	1,595	1.14
“Something else”	22.9	(18.2, 28.3)	11.4	1.99^*** (1.60, 2.46)	502	0.35
PANEL B. Chronic pain
Straight	17.2	(16.9, 17.5)	--	--	92,062	96.60
Gay/lesbian	21.7	(19.3, 24.4)	4.5	1.26^*** (1.12, 1.41)	2,006	1.92
Bisexual	23.7	(20.8, 26.9)	6.5	1.38^*** (1.21, 1.56)	1,210	1.14
“Something else”	27.0	(21.8, 32.9)	9.8	1.57^*** (1.28, 1.91)	397	0.35

^***

p<.001. N = number of respondents, or sample size

NHIS 2013–2018, US adults age 18–64. N=134,266 for pain in 3+ sites and N=95,675 for chronic pain. Overall weighted prevalence was 11.7% (11.5,11.9) for pain in 3+ sites and 17.4% (17.1,17.7) for chronic pain.

“Something else” was the actual verbatim terminology used on the NHIS survey; it captures other non-heterosexual identified adults. More information about the design of the sexual identity question is available elsewhere [52].

Relative to straight respondents. Percentage point difference is just the arithmetic difference in prevalence levels; the relative difference is a prevalence ratio obtained from complex-survey-adjusted (modified/robust) bivariate Poisson model of each outcome as a function of sexual identity.

The number of respondents is the raw count of respondents in the sample with valid information, that is, number used in analyses; the weighted percentage corresponds to the distribution of the groups in the population (target population of the NHIS, which is non-institutionalized US adults).