TMJ Associated Pain: Baseline of the Osteoarthritis Initiative Study

BACKGROUND: The Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI) is a multi-center, prospective observational study of knee osteoarthritis involving 4796 participants. OBJECTIVE: To describe the prevalence of TMJ-associated pain in a US cohort of men and women aged 45-79 years. METHODS: Baseline TMJ-associated pain data in the OAI study collected information from ethnically diverse cohort of women and men aged 45-79 years using questionnaires, interviews, and clinical examinations with knee-radiographs and MRI scans. TMJ-associated pain data from questionnaire-interviews was analyzed in SASŪV9.2. Univariate/bivariate/multivariable analysis of factors associated with TMJ-associated pain was conducted using chi-square/t-tests, ANOVA and logistic regression. RESULTS: Preliminary results show that 10.6% of all participants experienced pain in TMJ/front of the ear, in the past six months (70.5% reported the pain to be their first such experience). 79% experienced TMJ-associated pain within 30 days from the interviews lasting for 8.98 + 8.71 days. 26% of those with TMJ-associated pain were often or always worried or concerned about the pain/ache. Participants with TMJ-associated pain reported that on average TMJ-associated pain/ache kept them from doing usual activities (e.g., work, school etc.) for 1+3.96 days. Overall, 4.4% participants reported pain/ache across face or cheek in the past six months (3.4% in past 30 days); 76.4% of whom reported this to be their first such experience, with pain lasting for 9.78 + 8.29 days. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of OAI participants reported TMJ-associated pain lasting for more than a week resulting in absence from school or work activities. This study is supported by NIH.