Sex differences in pain sensitivity in a Dutch cohort: Insights from a Web-Based Multidimensional Study

The data was obtained in the study: 'Groot Nationaal Onderzoek: Pijngevoeligheid bij mannen en vrouwen'. In this study we aimed to investigate the influence of sex and other demographic, lifestyle, behavioral, clinical and environmental factors on pain sensitivity in the Dutch population. Different films were used to investigate how this would impact pain sensitivity, and what influence sex and these other variables have on the effect of this simple intervention. We performed a study consisting of two parts: a cross sectional research, to investigate pain sensitivity differences between men and women and the influence of demographic variables, in the Dutch population and an internet intervention study to determine whether a short film could skew pain sensitivity. All respondents filled in the Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire (PSQ) after an online demographic questionnaire and randomization into four groups. A cross sectional analysis was performed in the control group (n= 1746 respondents). Three groups saw a short film: one with scenes of nature (n=2650), one with laughing people (n=2735) and one with physically painful events (n=2708). The PSQ score was stated as a mean per question, on a numeric rating scale from 0-10. The cross-sectional study revealed no significant differences between men and women, but showed a male to female difference in our population on the pain sensitivity questionnaire when specific background factors were present. Viewing a short film has a positive impact on pain sensitivity in respondents who have chronic pain, with a higher effect in female respondents. In this collection you can find the core data of the used variables for the statistical analysis with SPSS, with a SPSS syntax for the descriptives in table 1 and the R syntax for table 2 and 3. We added the tables as a direct access to the output.