Task‐switching ability protects against the adverse effects of pain on health: A longitudinal study of older adults

Abstract

Objective Aging is often accompanied by increases in pain, which may threaten physical health. Successfully managing increased pain requires the ability to switch attention away from the pain and toward adaptive health cognitions and behaviors. However, no study to date has tested how pain interacts with task-switching ability to predict future health in older adults. Additionally, no study has tested whether objective (i.e., task-switching performance) or subjective measures of cognitive ability have a stronger impact on future health. Design/Methods The current study tested these interactions in community-dwelling older adults. Participants included 150 older adults who provided pain, task-switching ability, subjective cognitive functioning, and health data every 6 months for up to 5 years. Results Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the data, yielding gamma (γ) analogous to unstandardized beta weights in regression. A significant interaction between task-switching and pain indicated that when task-switching ability was lower than usual, higher than usual pain predicted poorer health at the following wave (γ = 0.30, SE = .12, t(663) = 2.45, p = .009; 95% CI: .07 – .65). When task-switching ability was higher than usual, there was no effect of pain on health (γ = −0.13, t(663) = −.85, p = .39; 95% CI: −.44 – .17). No significant interaction was found for subjective cognitive functioning. Conclusions Objective task-switching ability, but not subjective cognitive functioning, may have health-protective effects when older adults experience increases in pain.

Relationship between self‐reported cognitive difficulties, objective neuropsychological test performance and psychological distress in chronic pain

“…captured poorer performances), and had the strongest concurrence with self‐reported difficulties in our study. Several other studies have found the Trail‐making test B to be sensitive to the cognitive differences between persons with and without chronic pain (Weiner et al., ; Tesio et al., ), and to be predictive of chronic pain outcomes (Attal et al., ; Boggero et al., ).…”

Emotional approach coping in older adults as predictor of physical and mental health.

“…These components all reflect general health, and each individual component prospectively predicts morbidity and mortality (Clark et al, 1995; DeSalvo, Bloser, Reynolds, He, & Muntner, 2006; Volpato et al, 2001). The combination of measures more accurately captures a person’s overall health than any individual measure in isolation (Boggero, Eisenlohr-Moul, & Segerstrom, 2016). To create the composite ill-health variable, Z-scores were computed for each of the variables and averaged.…”

Self‐regulatory ability, fatigue, and the experience of pain: Mechanistic insights from pain‐free undergraduates

“…Executive functions are interrelated cognitive abilities including task‐switching and working memory that allow people to plan and organize behavior. Task‐switching and working memory have been linked to adaptive pain outcomes (Berryman et al, , ; Boggero, Eisenlohr‐Moul, & Segerstrom, ; Solberg Nes et al, ). Physiologically, resting heart rate variability is a measure of parasympathetic inhibition, reflects SR ability (Segerstrom & Solberg Nes, ), and serves as a resource for managing pain (Hassett et al, ; Koenig, Jarczok, Ellis, Hillecke, & Thayer, ).…”