Social and Economic Disparities in Chronic Pain with a focus on Poverty: A Qualitative Research in Mukrian, Kurdistan

Giving voice to the Social Determinants of Health (SDH) Approach, this article examines the relationship of poverty and chronic pain. Using qualitative research methods including narrative ethnography and conducting observations and interviews with patients with chronic pain. Multi-sources data obtained from prolonged engagement in the research filed (over nine months) were analyzed using thematic narrative analysis and Miles and Huberman's flow model. The findings show that the special geography positions of the Mukrian area with cultural belief systems that support subcultures in poverty force people to engage in hard-working and erosive activities that make them susceptible to chronic pain skeletal illness. In addition, the economic poverty caused by low-income jobs, being unemployed due to pain and illness and the lack of social support on the one hand, and the underdevelopment, lack of medical facilities and services on the other, has challenged life of chronic pain skeletal patients.