Association between Multisite and Site-specific Chronic Pain, Analgesic Use, Metabolic–Proteomic Profile, and Incident Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetes
Main finding · Incident CKDResult — go to the resultAdjusted hazard ratio 1.18 95% CI 1.08–1.28Authors' conclusion
Multisite chronic pain and opioid use are associated with elevated CKD risk in diabetes, supported by metabolomic/proteomic signatures.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank participants with diabetes and complete chronic pain site information2,589 incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) cases
- Participants
- 20,208 participants
- Exposure
- Chronic pain and analgesic use vs none
- Outcome
- Incident CKD
- Follow-up
- Median 13.2 yr
Methodological detailsUK Biobank, multivariable Cox regression, multiomics analysis
- UK Biobank
- Multivariable Cox regression
- Multiomics analysis
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
median 13.2 yr
Adjusted hazard ratio
1.18
95% CI 1.08–1.28
Chronic pain vs No chronic pain
aHR 1.18 (95% CI 1.08–1.28)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
| Outcome | aHR (95% CI) | |
|---|---|---|
| Incident CKD per additional pain site (multisite pain)Dose-dependent relationship | 1.08 (1.05–1.12) | |
| 0.512Adjusted hazard ratio (log scale) |
Incident CKD by analgesic use, participants with chronic pain
| aHR (95% CI) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Opioid use | 1.22 (1.06–1.40) | |
| 0.512Adjusted hazard ratio (log scale) |
Incident CKD by pain site (subgroup)
- Significant associations for neck/shoulder, back, hip, knee and stomach/abdominal pain; no significant associations for headache and facial pain
Incident CKD by analgesic use, participants with chronic pain
- Ibuprofen and paracetamol: no significant associations
Multiomics biomarkers across all five significant pain sites
- Three consistently dysregulated biomarkers: elevated chromogranin-A, increased glycoprotein acetyls, reduced omega-3 to total fatty acids ratio
- three
- Protein network analysis: Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) central nodes in chronic pain-CKD associations
- Secondary analysis
Original publication
Association between Multisite and Site-specific Chronic Pain, Analgesic Use, Metabolic–Proteomic Profile, and Incident Chronic Kidney Disease in Diabetes. Anesthesiology. Published 4 November 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →