Chronic Pain in the Elderly: Occupational Adaptation as a Means of Coping with Osteoarthritis of the Hip and/or Knee

Abstract

This sample of elderly individuals with chronic pain described occupational adaptations, or adaptations to "doing," as a means of coping with their chronic pain. There appeared to be a relation among pain, functional difficulty, depression, social support, and occupational adaptation. Additional research to increase the understanding of occupational adaptation as a means of coping with chronic pain is warranted.

The Challenge of Pain for Patients with OA

“…The traditional biomedical view of OA pain is as nociceptive, resulting from joint tissue injury [13]. However, this perspective fails to recognize that pain and other OA symptoms may be strongly influenced by psychological and physical health [40,42], social support [16], gender [43], coping behaviors [27,30,36], and self-efficacy [28]. This explains, in part, why people with similar OA severity radiographically may experience markedly different levels of pain or other symptoms [5,32].…”

Pain in Older Adults: Epidemiology, Impact and Barriers to Management

“…Rest and other interventions such as heat or 'folk' remedies were also used, with medication only taken as a last resort (9,10). Some older people may prefer self-administered strategies for managing their pain (e.g.…”

Visual art-making as a resource for living positively with arthritis: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of older women's accounts

“…Older people with arthritis who maintain engagement in their most valued social and leisure activities are more resilient to depression (Klinger, Spaulding, Polatajko, MacKinnon & Miller, 1999;Payne et al, 2006;Zimmer, Hickey & Searle, 1995). Stevens-Ratchford & Lookingbill (2004) conducted a phenomenological inquiry and found that older people with arthritis described deriving many psychological benefits from their leisure activities.…”