The purpose of this investigation is to determine the prevalence of chronic pain and temporomandibular disorders (TMD) and factors associated with TMDs in an established, population-based cohort of young women. The principal investigator proposes to utilize a cohort that has been participatin for 10 years in the longitudinal National Heart Lung and Blood Institute's Growth and Health Study (NGHS) conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health.
The specific aims are: 1) to assess the prevalence and severity of five types of chronic pain (TMD, headaches, abdominal, low back and chest) using the """"""""lifetime pain history questionnaires""""""""; 2) to identify TMD cases and TMD/chronic-pain-free controls b using clinical examinations and personal interviews (e.g., the Standardized Research Diagnostic criteria for TMD will be used and the signs and symptoms associated with TMDs among cases and controls as well as distribution of TMD diagnostic type for TMD cases will be determined); 3) to compare TMD cases and controls for potential explanatory factors using developmental, hormonal and psychological data available from these women during the past ten years, e.g., measures of depression, anxiety, stress, health beliefs and attitudes, coping strategies. The cohort consists of 837 18-19 year old women (51% Black, 49% White) recruited form West Contra Costa County, California. Longitudinal data collected over the past 10 years regarding physical and psychological development in the National Growth and Health Study will be used for analyses. Potential risk factors and their associations with TMD case-control status wil be assessed. Thus, 10 years of longitudinal data collected during the preteen and teenage period of physical and psychosocial development of this cohort of young women will offer a unique opportunity to study multiple risk factors thought to be associated with TMDs as they enter, what the principal investigator describes, as their most vulnerable period of life for developing chronic pain. The long-term objectives of this study are to use the cross-sectional findings collected in the existing NIH-supported National Growth and Health Study as th starting point for future prospective longitudinal oral health studies on the cases and controls to determine the role of different risk factors in the etiology and progression of these chronic pain conditions.
| Plesh, Octavia; Sinisi, Sandra E; Crawford, Patricia B et al. (2005) Diagnoses based on the Research Diagnostic Criteria for Temporomandibular Disorders in a biracial population of young women. J Orofac Pain 19:65-75 |
| Plesh, Octavia; Crawford, Patricia B; Gansky, Stuart A (2002) Chronic pain in a biracial population of young women. Pain 99:515-23 |
