Associations of Age and Pain With 9-Year Functional Health Trajectories

Wettstein, Markus; Spuling, Svenja M.; Cengia, Anja; Nowossadeck, Sonja; Tesarz, Jonas

doi:10.1024/1662-9647/a000221

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 82 publications

(147 reference statements)

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“…Besides the mechanism of pain serving as an “aging body reminder” and thereby affecting subjective age, it could also be that the detrimental effects of pain on quality of life and functional ability (Covinsky et al, 2009; Frede et al, 2023; Gerhardt et al, 2011; Jakobsson et al, 2003, 2004; Potter et al, 2022; Rudy et al, 2007; Wettstein et al, 2020; Willman et al, 2013; Zimmer & Rubin, 2020) result in an older subjective age. Indeed, increases in depressive symptoms were found to be related with increasing subjective ages over time (Ayalon et al, 2016), and an experimental study showed that inducing sad mood makes individuals feel older (Dutt & Wahl, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Barrett and Gumber (2020) found that an increase in everyday body problems, including pain, prospectively predicted an older subjective age in a sample of older adults. Given that pain is a risk factor for poorer quality of life (Frede et al, 2023; Gerhardt et al, 2011; Jakobsson et al, 2003, 2004; Potter et al, 2022; Willman et al, 2013), restricted functional health (Covinsky et al, 2009; Rudy et al, 2007; Wettstein et al, 2020; Zimmer & Rubin, 2020) and greater mortality hazards (Tesarz et al, 2019; Zhu et al, 2007), it is possible that such associations are to some extent driven by subjective age.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Feeling older, feeling pain? Reciprocal between-person and within-person associations of pain and subjective age in the second half of life.

Wettstein,

Ghisletta,

Gerstorf

2024

Psychology and Aging

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Experiencing pain in middle adulthood and old age might be interpreted as a sign of aging and make people feel older, whereas feeling older has behavioral, motivational, and physiological consequences that might increase the risk of pain. We investigated between-person and within-person associations between pain, subjective age, and chronological age in middle-aged and older adults. Data from the German Ageing Survey were used (n = 13,874 who provided more than 32,000 observations, baseline mean age = 62.3 years). The observation period comprised up to 13 years (M = 4 years) and five (M = 2.4) measurement occasions. Based on the longitudinal multilevel regression models, we found significant between-person and within-person effects in both directions, which were small but robust when controlling for sociodemographic variables, depressive symptoms, and number of chronic diseases. At the between-person level, participants reporting overall more severe pain also felt older than others. Likewise, those who felt overall older than others reported more pain. At the within-person level, when participants experienced more pain than they usually do, they also reported feeling older than usual. Likewise, on measurement occasions when participants reported feeling older than usual, they reported more pain than usual. Additionally, those with overall stronger pain exhibited steeper age-related increases in their subjective age than those with less severe pain. Our findings suggest that an older subjective age may operate as both antecedent and consequence of pain, and pain might prompt a steeper increase in subjective age over time. Public Significance StatementThe experience of pain might make individuals feel older, but how old individuals feel may also affect their pain sensations over time. This study is the first one to assess reciprocal between-person and withinperson associations of pain and subjective age, based on a large sample of middle-aged and older adults who were assessed up to five times over 13 years. Our findings suggest that significant between-person and within-person associations of stronger pain with an older subjective age and vice versa exist, and that individuals with overall stronger pain exhibit a more pronounced increase in subjective age with advancing chronological age compared to those with less pain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeling older, feeling pain? Reciprocal between-person and within-person associations of pain and subjective age in the second half of life.

Wettstein,

Ghisletta,

Gerstorf

2024

Psychology and Aging

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“…Next, they were presented with a list of digits and were asked to complete as many matching symbols as possible within 90 s. Our outcome was the number of correct responses. The test has been used in previous studies based on the DEAS (Seidler & Wolff, 2017; Wettstein et al, 2020; Zwar et al, 2018).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal associations of volunteering, grandparenting, and family care with processing speed: A gender perspective on prosocial activity and cognitive aging in the second half of life.

Henning,

Ehrlich,

Gow

et al. 2023

Psychology and Aging

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An active lifestyle has been associated with better cognitive performance in many studies. However, most studies have focused on leisure activities or paid work, with less consideration of the kind of prosocial activities, many people engage in, including volunteering, grandparenting, and family care. In the present study, based on four waves of the German Ageing Survey (N = 6,915, aged 40–85 at baseline), we used parallel growth curves to investigate the longitudinal association of level and change in volunteering, grandparenting, and family care with level and change in processing speed. Given the gendered nature of engagement in these activities over the life span, we tested for gender differences in the associations. Only volunteering was reliably associated with higher speed of processing at baseline, no consistent longitudinal associations were found. Our results show that although prosocial activities are of great societal importance, expectations of large rewards in terms of cognitive health may be exaggerated.

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“…The detrimental consequences of pain for developmental outcomes such as quality of life and mental health (9)(10)(11), functional ability (12)(13)(14) or longevity (15,16) are wellestablished from prior research. Yet, little is known with regard to long-term trajectories of pain among the oldest-old as well as with regard to their predictors.…”

Section: Trajectories Of Pain In Very Old Age: the Role Of Eudaimonic...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Trajectories of Pain in Very Old Age: The Role of Eudaimonic Wellbeing and Personality

2022

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Pain is common in very old age and in the last years prior to death. However, little is known regarding longitudinal trajectories of pain in very old age and at the end of life. Moreover, whereas medical and morbidity-related factors contributing to pain are established, the role of psychosocial factors, such as eudaimonic wellbeing or personality as potential determinants of late-life pain trajectories has so far not been sufficiently investigated. We used data from the LateLine project. The sample consisted of n = 118 very old adults (M = 90.5 years, SD = 2.8 years) who were living alone at baseline and who had died between 2009 and 2021. They took part in up to 16 measurement occasions (M = 5.2, SD = 4.7, range 1–16) within an observational interval of 7 years. Assessment of pain was based on the SF-36 bodily pain subscale. Key indicators of eudaimonic wellbeing (autonomy, environmental mastery, and purpose in life) as well two of the Big Five personality traits (neuroticism and extraversion) were included as predictors. We controlled in all analyses for gender, education, subjective health, and depressive symptoms. Contrasting pain trajectories over chronological age (time since birth) vs. time to death, a time-to-death-related model resulted in a better model fit and accounted for a larger amount of pain variability than the age-related model. Mean-level change in pain, both over age and time to death, was not significant, but there was substantial interindividual variability in intraindividual trajectories. Age-related change in pain was significantly predicted by autonomy and neuroticism, with increasing pain among those who had lower initial autonomy scores and higher initial neuroticism scores. With regard to time-to-death-related trajectories of pain, higher purpose in life as well as lower extraversion at baseline predicted less increase or even steeper decrease in pain with approaching death. Our findings suggest that, despite overall mean-level stability in pain both over age and time to death, there is a substantial proportion of individuals who reveal deterioration in pain over time. Regarding the role of psychosocial predictors, personality traits and eudaimonic wellbeing are related with late-life pain trajectories both over age and time-to-death.

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Associations of Age and Pain With 9-Year Functional Health Trajectories

Cited by 7 publications

References 82 publications

Feeling older, feeling pain? Reciprocal between-person and within-person associations of pain and subjective age in the second half of life.

Feeling older, feeling pain? Reciprocal between-person and within-person associations of pain and subjective age in the second half of life.

Longitudinal associations of volunteering, grandparenting, and family care with processing speed: A gender perspective on prosocial activity and cognitive aging in the second half of life.

Trajectories of Pain in Very Old Age: The Role of Eudaimonic Wellbeing and Personality

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