Does smoking aggravate musculoskeletal pain?

The present study was based on data from the Norwegian Health Survey 1985, a nationwide interview survey with members of a representative sample of households. Our sample comprised all adult respondents who had reported musculoskeletal pain (n = 4490). Smokers experienced more intense pain than nonsmokers. The association between smoking and considerable/intense pain was, however, only seen in persons younger than 67 years. In this age group, smoking was related to intense pain in a logistic regression analysis (OR = 1.58; 95% CI: 1.24-2.00; p < 0.001), adjusting for age, gender, socioeconomic status, civil status, having children under 16, physical exercise, the presence of a musculoskeletal disease, and mental distress. The association remained significant after adjusting for workplace factors, social network factors, alcohol consumption, and intake of cod liver oil as dietary supplement.