{
  "abstract": "Background: Preclinical evidence suggests a reciprocal relationship between alcohol use and chronic pain, but longitudinal co-development remains underexplored. Observational evidence among non-manual workers suggests a positive association, but most studies are cross-sectional. We identified co-developmental patterns of alcohol and pain among non-manual workers using joint growth mixture models (GMM) and parallel-process latent growth curve models (pp-LGM).\n\nMethods: Data was analysed from five phases (5, 7, 9, 11, and 12; 1997-2016) of the Whitehall II cohort. Weekly alcohol consumption (1 unit=8g ethanol) was log2-transformed for normality. Pain was measured via the RAND-36 bodily pain score (MOS algorithm), inverted so higher values indicate greater severity. Joint GMM estimated trajectories with covariate adjustment; pp-LGM examined growth parameter correlations and cross-domain intercept-to-slope associations.\n\nFindings: 6,777 participants (mean age: 52.1 years; men: 67%) were included in primary analyses after removing deceased subjects. Four classes were identified. Classes 1-2 (29.7%) showed low (median<2 units), decreasing alcohol (-6.2% and -11.1%/phase) with either low-stable pain (intercept [i]: 19.6, slope [s]: 0.03 points/phase) or moderate-increasing pain (i: 49.8, s: 3.3). Class 3 showed a moderate (13.4 units), decreasing alcohol (-7.7%) with low-stable pain (i: 18.7, s: 0.4). Class 4 showed moderate (14.4 units), decreasing alcohol (-49.0%) with a low-increasing pain trajectory (i: 21.9, s: 1.3). The pp-LGM showed negative correlations between intercepts (r=-0.23, 95% CI: -0.27, -0.20) but not between slopes. Baseline alcohol predicted pain slope at borderline (β = 0.06, 95% CI: -0.01, 0.12).\n\nConclusions: Despite a declining trend in alcohol consumption and a rising trend in pain severity, the two trajectories showed no clear correlation. Alcohol may predict elevated pain severity, but this warrants validation through intervention-based approaches.\n\nKey messages: • Alcohol use and pain were inversely correlated at baseline, but their rates of change were unrelated, so the opposing population trends do not reflect coupled trajectories.\n\n• Baseline alcohol consumption might predict higher rate of change in pain severity, suggesting that alcohol reduction could warrant evaluation for pain prevention.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "abstract",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Z Zhao"
    },
    {
      "name": "T Lallukka"
    },
    {
      "name": "T Chandola"
    },
    {
      "name": "A Britton"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/26egf7nehe37k.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.1114",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13699597/",
  "id": "26egf7nehe37k",
  "issns": [
    "1101-1262",
    "1464-360X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.1114",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "6. Poster Displays"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/MED00860"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SOC01210"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "AcademicSubjects/SOC02610"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "DB. Chronic diseases, multimorbidity and non-communicable diseases"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2734|Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223671636",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13699597/pdf/?tool=EBI",
  "pmcid": "PMC13699597",
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-01",
  "publisher": "Oxford University Press",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/26egf7nehe37k.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:20:11Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13699597",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.1114"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:21:47Z",
      "native_id": "PMC:PMC13699597",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC13699597"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2734|Alcohol Consumption and Health Effects",
      "subfield": "general"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Parallel-process trajectories of alcohol use and bodily pain over 19 years: a Whitehall II study",
  "title_text": "Parallel-process trajectories of alcohol use and bodily pain over 19 years: a Whitehall II study",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:36:09Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/26egf7nehe37k",
  "venue": "The European Journal of Public Health",
  "versions": []
}