According to a new  study  published in  JAMA Network Open, chronic pain is the most common long-term health condition among U.S. adults, overtaking diabetes, depression, and high blood pressure — a finding the researchers say emphasizes the "high disease burden" of chronic pain.

How many Americans are impacted by chronic pain?

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 10,415 adults who participated in the National Center for Health Statistics' National Health Interview Survey for both 2019 and 2020. Among the participants, 51.7% were women, and 54% were between the ages of 18 to 49. Most participants were white (72.6%), 16.5% were Hispanic, and 12.2% were Black.

At baseline, 40.3% of respondents reported no pain, 38.9% reported non-chronic pain, and 20.8% reported chronic pain. For many people, their chronic pain was persistent, with over 60% who reported experiencing chronic pain in 2019 saying the same in 2020.

Older adults were more likely to report chronic pain than younger adults, and individuals without a college degree reported having more pain than college graduates.

In 2020, the rates of persistent chronic pain and persistent high-impact chronic pain were 462 and 361.2 cases per 1,000 person-years (PY), respectively. Among people who did not report chronic pain in 2019, the incidence of new cases of chronic pain or high-impact chronic pain were 52.4 and 12 cases per 1,000 PY, respectively.

According to the researchers, the incidence of chronic pain in 2020 was much higher than other chronic diseases in the U.S. population, including diabetes (7.1 cases per 1,000 PY), depression (15.9 cases per 1,000 PY), and hypertension (45.3 cases per 1,000 PY).