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Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation
Pain and loneliness are consistently associated, but the direction of the relationship is uncertain. We assessed bidirectional associations over a 4-year period in a sample of 4906 men and women (mean 65.1 ± 8.72 years) who were participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The role of i...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Wolters Kluwer
2021
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7886943/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32960533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002082 |
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author | Loeffler, Anna Steptoe, Andrew |
author_facet | Loeffler, Anna Steptoe, Andrew |
author_sort | Loeffler, Anna |
collection | PubMed |
description | Pain and loneliness are consistently associated, but the direction of the relationship is uncertain. We assessed bidirectional associations over a 4-year period in a sample of 4906 men and women (mean 65.1 ± 8.72 years) who were participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The role of inflammation in these links was also investigated. Pain was defined by reports of being often troubled by pain at a moderate or severe intensity, whereas loneliness was measured using the shortened UCLA scale. Age, sex, ethnicity, educational attainment, wealth as a marker of socioeconomic resources, marital status, physical activity, and depressive symptoms were included as covariates. We found that baseline loneliness was associated with pain 4 years later after adjusting for baseline pain and other covariates (odds ratio [OR] = 1.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-1.47, P = 0.007). Similarly, baseline pain independently predicted loneliness 4 years later (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.14-1.58, P = 0.001). Associations remained significant after additional adjustment for baseline mobility impairment. Likelihood of pain on follow-up was heightened when baseline loneliness was accompanied by elevated C-reactive protein concentration (OR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.13-2.00, P = 0.006), whereas inflammation did not predict future loneliness or contribute to the association between baseline pain and future loneliness. Both pain and loneliness are distressing experiences that impact well-being and quality of life. We conclude that there were bidirectional longitudinal relationships between pain and loneliness in this representative sample of older men and women, but that the mechanisms underlying these processes may differ. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7886943 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Wolters Kluwer |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78869432021-03-22 Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation Loeffler, Anna Steptoe, Andrew Pain Research Paper Pain and loneliness are consistently associated, but the direction of the relationship is uncertain. We assessed bidirectional associations over a 4-year period in a sample of 4906 men and women (mean 65.1 ± 8.72 years) who were participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The role of inflammation in these links was also investigated. Pain was defined by reports of being often troubled by pain at a moderate or severe intensity, whereas loneliness was measured using the shortened UCLA scale. Age, sex, ethnicity, educational attainment, wealth as a marker of socioeconomic resources, marital status, physical activity, and depressive symptoms were included as covariates. We found that baseline loneliness was associated with pain 4 years later after adjusting for baseline pain and other covariates (odds ratio [OR] = 1.25, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.06-1.47, P = 0.007). Similarly, baseline pain independently predicted loneliness 4 years later (OR = 1.34, 95% CI 1.14-1.58, P = 0.001). Associations remained significant after additional adjustment for baseline mobility impairment. Likelihood of pain on follow-up was heightened when baseline loneliness was accompanied by elevated C-reactive protein concentration (OR = 1.50, 95% CI 1.13-2.00, P = 0.006), whereas inflammation did not predict future loneliness or contribute to the association between baseline pain and future loneliness. Both pain and loneliness are distressing experiences that impact well-being and quality of life. We conclude that there were bidirectional longitudinal relationships between pain and loneliness in this representative sample of older men and women, but that the mechanisms underlying these processes may differ. Wolters Kluwer 2021-03 2020-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7886943/ /pubmed/32960533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002082 Text en Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Pain. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CCBY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Paper Loeffler, Anna Steptoe, Andrew Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation |
title | Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation |
title_full | Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation |
title_fullStr | Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation |
title_full_unstemmed | Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation |
title_short | Bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation |
title_sort | bidirectional longitudinal associations between loneliness and pain, and the role of inflammation |
topic | Research Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7886943/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32960533 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002082 |
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