Pain Intensity Interference Research Articles

Intensity of Chronic Low Back Pain and Activity Interference: A Daily Diary Study of the Moderating Role of Cognitive Pain Coping Strategies.

Chronic low back pain (CLBP) has a significant negative impact on daily functioning, particularly for those with challenges coping adaptively with ongoing pain. However, the dynamics of pain coping in daily life remain understudied. Therefore, we examined the extent to which pain intensity interferes with daily activities, and assessed whether pain coping strategies (as assessed using daily diaries) moderated this link. We analyzed diary data from a sample of 84 participants with CLBP who completed daily diaries for up to 30 days rating pain intensity, pain interference with daily activities, and their use of pain coping strategies, including pain rumination (i.e., repetitive thinking about the pain and its causes), reappraisal (i.e., evaluating one's pain less negatively or more positively), and distraction (i.e., diverting attention from the pain). We hypothesized that these coping strategies would moderate the associations between pain and pain interference with daily activities, although in different directions. Results suggest that pain rumination strengthens the association between pain intensity and pain interference both on the person and day level, while pain reappraisal and distraction weaken this association, at the day and person levels, respectively. Our findings suggest that those who are more preoccupied with their pain and those who are less likely to reappraise their pain have more pain interference with daily activities. These findings build on prior work on pain coping by using daily diaries and highlight two pain coping strategies that have particular relevance for reducing the impact of CLBP in daily life.

(297) Linking Pain Intensity and Pain Interference: Pain Catastrophizing as a Mediator and Sleep Quality as a Moderator

When pain repeatedly interferes with individuals’ daily activities, their psychosocial well-being is at risk. However, the mechanisms through which pain elicits pain interference in chronic pain patients’ daily lives remain unclear. Identifying a targetable mediating and moderating variable in the pain intensity-pain interference link is important for developing strategies that can efficiently disconnect this association. To addresses this knowledge gap the present study examined pain catastrophizing as a mediator of the association between pain intensity and pain interference, and sleep quality as a moderator of the association between pain intensity and pain catastrophizing. A sample of 220 individuals who have fibromyalgia were included in the study. Sleep reports were collected as soon as participants woke up in the morning and subsequent pain-related reports were also collected every day for 21-days. Multilevel moderated mediation analysis was conducted. Morning pain catastrophizing significantly mediated the prospective association between morning pain intensity and afternoon pain interference [95% CI (0.005-0.007)]. Moderation analyses revealed that the relation between morning pain intensity and morning pain catastrophizing was significantly moderated by the previous night's sleep quality (p