Pain is a major health problem among U.S. young adults. The passage of the Affordable Care Act's young adult mandate in 2010 allowed individuals to remain on their parents' health insurance until age 26. Although studies have documented the positive effects of this mandate on various health outcomes, less is known about its association with self-reported pain among young adults. Using the 2002 to 2018 National Health Interview Survey (N = 48,053) and a difference-in-differences approach, we compared the probabilities of reporting pain at 5 sites (low back, joint, neck, headache/migraine, and facial/jaw) and the number of pain sites between mandate eligible (ages 20-25) and ineligible (ages 26-30) adults before and after the mandate. In fully adjusted models, the mandate was associated with a decline of 2 percentage points in the probability of reporting pain at any site (marginal effect, -0.02; 95% confidence interval [CI], -0.05 to -0.002; weighted sample proportion, 0.37) and in the number of pain sites (coefficient, -0.07; 95% CI, -0.11 to -0.01; weighted sample average, 0.62). These results were primarily driven by the association between the mandate and the probability of reporting low back pain (marginal effect, -0.03; 95% CI, -0.05 to -0.01; weighted sample proportion, 0.20). Additional analyses revealed that the mandate was associated with improvements in access to care and reductions in risk factors for pain-including chronic conditions and risky health behaviors. To the extent that the results are generalizable to other health insurance programs, removing financial barriers to medical care may help reduce pain prevalence.

中文翻译：

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《平价医疗法案》对年轻人的强制要求与疼痛患病率的降低有关。

疼痛是美国年轻人的一个主要健康问题。2010 年通过的《平价医疗法案》中关于年轻人的规定允许个人在 26 岁之前继续享受父母的健康保险。尽管研究已经证明了这一规定对各种健康结果的积极影响，但人们对其与自我保健的关系知之甚少。报道了年轻人的疼痛。使用 2002 年至 2018 年全国健康访谈调查 (N = 48,053) 和双重差分方法，我们比较了 5 个部位（腰部、关节、颈部、头痛/偏头痛和面部/下巴）报告疼痛的概率以及强制执行前后符合资格（20-25 岁）和不符合资格（26-30 岁）成年人之间疼痛部位的数量。在完全调整的模型中，该指令与报告任何部位疼痛的概率下降 2 个百分点相关（边际效应，-0.02；95% 置信区间 [CI]，-0.05 至 -0.002；加权样本比例， 0.37）和疼痛部位的数量（系数，-0.07；95% CI，-0.11至-0.01；加权样本平均值，0.62）。这些结果主要是由授权与报告腰痛的概率之间的关联驱动的（边际效应，-0.03；95% CI，-0.05 至 -0.01；加权样本比例，0.20）。其他分析显示，该任务与改善获得护理的机会和减少疼痛的危险因素（包括慢性病和危险的健康行为）有关。如果结果可以推广到其他健康保险计划，消除医疗保健的财务障碍可能有助于减少疼痛的患病率。