A nation in pain: high-quality local research as a crucial step to improve pain prevention and care

About 20% of South African adults have chronic pain, with women and the elderly being the worst affected; the prevalence of chronic pain is 20% greater in women than in men, and 30% of people over 65 years have chronic pain.1 However, beyond basic epidemiological data, fundamental information on the biological, psychological, and social factors that predispose individuals to the development and chronification of pain is missing for South Africa (and other low- to middle-income countries).