Physical Activity May Be Associated with Conditioned Pain Modulation in Women but Not Men among Healthy Individuals

Table 1

Sex-wise differences in characteristics of the study participants.

	Men	Women	p value
	Age (years)	20.8 (0.8)		21.0 (0.8)	0.289
Height (cm)	172.2 (5.4)	158.1 (6.1)	<
Weight (kg)	66.3 (9.8)	52.0 (5.8)	<
BMI (kg/m^2)	22.4 (3.3)	20.8 (2.1)
BMR (kcal)	1657.6	1273.3	<
MVPA (METs × h/week)	14.8 (6.3)	13.7 (5.0)	0.342
Baseline PPT (N)	20.0	16.5
CPM response	0.24	0.24	0.948
CPM response immediately after CPM	0.11 (0.10)	0.15 (0.33)	0.144

Values: mean (standard deviation) or median ; CPM response = (PPT during conditioning stimulus − baseline PPT)/baseline PPT; CPM response immediately after CPM = (PPT immediately after conditioning stimulus − baseline PPT)/baseline PPT; comparison between the two groups was performed using Student’s -test or Mann–Whitney test, depending on the distribution of data. significance (); BMI: body mass index, BMR: basal metabolic rate, MVPA: moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, PPT: pressure pain threshold, CPM: conditioned pain modulation.