School of Marxism, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine, Changchun, Jilin, China.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2024 Sep 13;103(37):e39301. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000039301.
Educational attainment (EA) is often used as a symbol of socioeconomic status and is associated with several diseases. However, uncertainty remains regarding the potential relationship between EA and chronic pain. This study aimed to evaluate the potential causal association between EA and chronic pain. The primary method employed in Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was inverse-variance weighted method. Additionally, MR-Egger intercept, Cochran Q, and MR-PRESSO statistical analyses were conducted to assess potential pleiotropy and heterogeneity. The MR analysis provided evidence that genetically predicted additional education significantly reduced the risk of chronic pain. Specifically, this genetic factor may reduce multisite chronic pain by 27.6%, and chronic widespread pain by 3.8%. The results of sensitivity analysis indicated the reliability of our causal estimates. Higher levels of EA may provide protection against chronic pain risk. Enhancing education, narrowing social and economic disparities may help alleviate the burden of chronic pain.
受教育程度（EA）常被用作社会经济地位的象征，并与多种疾病相关。然而，EA 与慢性疼痛之间潜在的关系仍存在不确定性。本研究旨在评估 EA 与慢性疼痛之间的潜在因果关系。孟德尔随机化（MR）分析中主要采用的方法是逆方差加权法。此外，还进行了 MR-Egger 截距、Cochran Q 和 MR-PRESSO 统计分析，以评估潜在的异质性和多效性。MR 分析结果表明，遗传预测的额外教育显著降低了慢性疼痛的风险。具体而言，这种遗传因素可能会使多部位慢性疼痛降低 27.6%，使慢性广泛性疼痛降低 3.8%。敏感性分析的结果表明了我们因果估计的可靠性。较高的 EA 水平可能为慢性疼痛风险提供保护。提高教育水平、缩小社会和经济差距可能有助于减轻慢性疼痛的负担。
