The research team suggested that chronic knee pain can increase the likelihood of depression. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Korea Bizwire) — A recent study has found a link between depression and knee pain.
A research team from the Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine selected 2,658 people aged 50 or older as subjects of the 2014 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys and conducted a survey analysis on whether they had chronic knee pain or not.
The level of depression was assessed through a Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) test.
According to the analysis, 527 (19.8 percent), of 2,658 people over the age of 50 had chronic knee pain.
Meanwhile, there were 91 individuals suffering from both chronic knee pain and depression. In addition, 77.8 percent of women suffered from knee pain, more than three times the 22.2 percent of men.
Among the 527 people with chronic knee pain, 17.3 percent also suffered from depression. On the other hand, out of 2,131 people without chronic knee pain, only 5.2 percent, or 110, were suffering from depression.
Based on these results, the research team suggested that chronic knee pain can increase the likelihood of depression. In addition, the prevalence rate for chronic knee pain when depressed was about 2.3 times higher than average.
“It will also be important in the future to find out whether health care practitioners feel depressed when treating patients with pain in a clinical setting,” said Han Soo-bin, an oriental medicine doctor at the Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
