Physical and Psychosocial Factors in the Prevention of Chronic Pain in Older Age

Chronic pain is recognized as a major challenge as people age. Yet, despite growing research on chronic pain management, there is little research into chronic pain prevention. Thus there is a clear need to identify multimodal activities that could be encouraged among older adults as part of a healthy lifestyle to decrease the incidence risk of chronic pain. Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing we tracked 2,631 adults aged ≥50 years who were free from chronic pain at baseline across a decade and explore whether physical or psychosocial factors reduced the risk of developing chronic pain. In relation to physical factors, engaging in vigorous weekly activity was protective against the development of chronic pain (odds ratio 0.74, standard error 0.07, 95% confidence interval 0.62–0.89) when controlling for all identified socioeconomic, health, and social confounders. However, no effects were found for moderate weekly activity. In relation to psychosocial factors, cultural engagement was also protective against the development of chronic pain (odds ratio 0.75, standard error 0.07, 95% confidence interval 0.63–0.91), but community group participation was not. These findings extend previous work showing that physical activity and psychosocial factors such as positive affect are key factors in the long-term success of chronic pain self-management. Future interventional studies for chronic pain are encouraged.

Perspective

This article explores whether physical and psychosocial activities could reduce the risk of developing chronic pain in older age. These results could potentially help clinicians to recommend multimodal activities as part of a broader healthy lifestyle for those aged ≥50 years to reduce the incidence rate of chronic pain.