Author Description

Two systematic reviews of the prevalence of pain disorders were identified but they did not adequately address the study objectives. A total of 13 studies were analyzed. The studies were very heterogeneous regarding the definition of CP. The main methodological problems of the studies were related to: failure to provide validity and reliability information on the data collection instruments, a lack of confidence intervals for the prevalence values, and low response rates. Wide variations in the estimated prevalence rates precluded a generalization of the review findings to a regional context. Therefore, the most important recommendation, with respect to future research, is to conduct prospective epidemiological studies to estimate the CP prevalence in Alberta.