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I thought that pain decreases after middle age, but apparently not
It's true that old people *now* have less pain than middle aged people. But that's not because pain goes down over the lifespan. It's because every generation has more pain than the last. https://www.pnas.org/content/117/40/24785.short
It's true that old people *now* have less pain than middle aged people. But that's not because pain goes down over the lifespan. It's because every generation has more pain than the last. https://www.pnas.org/content/117/40/24785.short
"This pattern is found in multiple US datasets and for multiple definitions of pain, but is not present in other rich countries"
The authors see this wave of pain as primarily driven by the collapse of the labour market for white people in America who do not have a college education. It's related to the "deaths of despair" you might have heard about
Reading some more of their stuff now. "The fraction of people in an area who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 is also strongly correlated with the fraction of pain"
They say it's not just that new generations are wimps and complain more about pain, because the pain wave is only in people without a college education. It doesn't seem likely that getting a degree makes you tougher!
Obesity explains part of it but not a lot...
"it is possible that the pain comes not from what happens at work but from the loss of status and meaning as a worker, or from the loss of the social structure that was supported by a well-paying job in a union town"
This confirms that in other countries, pain does get worse as you get older, as most people would expect. The myth that it gets better is based on (a misreading of) the data from America only. https://twitter.com/thomas_jesson/status/1332743781863591937
The authors point out that wear and tear on the job can't explain the pain wave because most people in this demo (whites without a college degree) have gone from physical labour to working in McDonalds or Wallmart or not working at all.
If you're curious here's a good podcast http://rationallyspeakingpodcast.org/show/episode-246-deaths-of-despair-effective-altruism-angus-deato.html
And lecture
And lecture
