Association of pain intensity and psychological factors among patients with chronic low back pain (LBP). A correlational cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is associated with a dynamic interaction of multiple psychological factors that act as predictors of recovery time. Our goal was to quantify the association between pain intensity and psychological variables. Material and methods: A cross-sectional study using convenience sampling was conducted at Universidad Europea de Canarias (Spain) between January 24, 2022 and June 10, 2022. In addition, adults and children with cLBP older than 13 years with cLBP for at least 12 weeks of symptoms were included. Finally, the descriptive analysis and the calculation of the correlation coefficients of the data was carried out with SPSS v.28.0. Results: We recruited 146 subjects (n=85 women, 58.3%; n=61 men,41.7%) aged 50.4 ± 12.21 years suffering from cLBP with a moderate pain intensity (7.02±0.188), kinesiophobia (22.79 ± 0.559), catastrophism (13.42 ± 0.897), anxiety (24.47±0.560) and the quality of life SF36-PF (65.65±2.291), SF36-PR (48.03±2.727), SF36-BP (33.14±1.566), SF36-GH (43.98±1.873), SF36-V (48.56±1.812), SF36-SF (61.39±2.353), SF36-ER (76.29±2.043) and SF36-MH (49.76±1.666). Pain intensity in cLBP patients was negatively and moderately correlated with SF36-BP score (Pearson's r = -0.561, p < 0.001). In addition, the main variable was negatively and weakly correlated with SF36-PF (Pearson's r= -0.395, p<.001), SF36-PR (Pearson's r=-0.433, p<.001), SF36-V (Pearson's r = -0.260, p = 0.006), SF36-GH (Pearson's r = -0.203, p=0.032), SF36-SF (Pearson's r=-0.215, p=0.024). and SF36-MH (Pearson's r= -0.203, p = 0.032). Furthermore, pain intensity showed positive and weak with kinesiophobia score (Pearson’s r=0.310, p<.001) and positive and very weak with catastrophism (Pearson’s r=0.136, p<.001). In contrast, there was not correlation between pain intensity and anxiety in cLBP subjects (Pearson’s r=0.025, p=0.794). Conclusions: Psychological variables were not associated with pain intensity in patients with cLBP. However, physical perception of pain was the only variable that remained moderately linearly associated with pain intensity.