36.0% of US adults aged 65 and over had chronic pain in 2023.
More than one in three. And 13.5% of that age group had high-impact chronic pain — pain that frequently limits what they can do.
Set those against the youngest adults surveyed: 12.3% with chronic pain, 3.0% high-impact. Prevalence roughly triples across the lifespan; the high-impact figure more than quadruples.
This is why pain and aging is one of the six areas the PRICE registry covers, and why so much of the center’s research sits at that intersection. Florida has one of the oldest populations in the country. The question of how pain works in older bodies — and how it interacts with memory, mobility, sleep, and cognition — is not an abstract research interest here. It is a local one.
What we study:
- Pain and Aging
- Chronic Pain Risk Factors
- Pain and the Brain
- Musculoskeletal Pain
- Pain and Exercise
- Non-Medical Treatment of Pain
Prefer to talk to a person? Call 352-273-5967 or email PRICE-CTSI@ufl.edu.
UF Study ID IRB201400126
References
- Lucas JW, Sohi I. Chronic Pain and High-impact Chronic Pain in U.S. Adults, 2023. NCHS Data Brief No. 518. National Center for Health Statistics; November 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db518.htm