• Juha H O Turunen, Pekka T Mäntyselkä, Esko A Kumpusalo, and Riitta S Ahonen.
• Department of Social Pharmacy, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Findland. juha.turunen@uku.fi
• J Pain. 2004 Nov 1;5(9):498-504.

UnlabelledWe investigated how a general population treat their pain and determined factors affecting use of different pain management strategies. From the respondents of a cross-sectional postal survey we selected those who had experienced pain during the past 7 days (n = 3641) and analyzed how they had tried to manage their pain during the past 6 months. The most common pain management strategies were use of over-the-counter medicines (53% of 3641 respondents), physical exercise (52%), prescription medicines (35%), and visiting a physician (33%). The location of pain was related to which pain management strategy was chosen. Use of multiple (>4) treatments was related to prolonged pain, having several (>3) painful locations, high intensity and frequency of pain.PerspectiveThis study indicates that people with pain are active in trying different treatments. Self-care strategies, especially over-the-counter medicines and physical exercise, are common ways to manage pain at the population level.

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