The Association of Pain Levels and Low Physical Activity among Older Women.

Thelma J Mielenz,Adam M Whalen,Qian-Li Xue,Sneha Kannoth,Kevin D Silverman,Laura L Durbin,Alexander S Perlmutter,Jing Tian

doi:10.3390/geriatrics6040103

Abstract

There is an integral research gap regarding whether there is a relationship between pain levels and low physical activity among older women. This is a secondary analysis of a longitudinal cohort study, the Women’s Health and Aging Study (WHAS) II. Our analyses included 436 community-dwelling women between the ages of 70 and 79, who were followed for 10.5 years. We employed marginal structural modeling, which controls for time-dependent confounding, with the aim of assessing the potential direct association between pain levels and low physical activity and assess a graded relationship. Compared to women with no pain, those with widespread pain were nearly half as likely to be moderately active versus low active (aOR: 0.46, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.22, 0.96). A graded association was observed across the four pain levels (no pain or mild pain, other pain, moderate or severe lower extremity pain, and widespread pain) on low physical activity. Our findings indicate that reducing chronic widespread pain in older women may increase moderate physical activity, and therefore reduce the downstream health risks of low physical activity, including morbidity and mortality risk.

Highlights

Chronic widespread pain is increasingly recognized as a public health challenge today
body mass index (BMI) levels varied among participants, with 3.2% underweight, 35.7% normal weight, 37.8% overweight, and 23.3% obese
Our findings indicate that women who reported widespread pain compared to women who reported no pain or mild are approximately twice as likely to be low active compared to being moderately active

Summary

Introduction

Chronic widespread pain is increasingly recognized as a public health challenge today. Previous research examined the relationship between pain and low physical activity levels, using data from the Epidemiology of Functional Disorders Study (EPIFUND), a large prospective cohort (2182 participants, ages 25–65), and found that those with chronic widespread pain at baseline were more likely to report higher low physical activity levels at 32 months followup, compared to those with no pain [7]. Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a large, nationally representative sample (3952 participants, aged 20+ years), researchers found an association between chronic widespread pain and low physical activity levels, as those with chronic widespread pain had reduced daily and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity levels (measured via accelerometry), compared to individuals with no chronic widespread pain [8]

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