Younger individuals with chronic pain have levels of disability similar to people who are twenty or thirty years older but do not suffer from pain, according to a new study on pains and inflammations. The research uncovered that people with chronic moderate and severe pain start to experience reduced mobility and functionality at much earlier ages.

Researchers from the United States analyzed the data of more than 18,500 volunteers from all across America with the ages of 50 years and older. All the subjects had participated in the 2004 Health and Retirement Study. For the study purposes, the participants were asked questions, such as if they were often troubled by pain and if the pain was mild, moderate or strong. Those who reported having moderate or severe pain were categorized as having significant pain. The four physical abilities considered by the experts were: mobility, for instance walking or jogging; stair climbing; upper-body tasks and; activity of daily living such as taking a bath, dressing and eating with or without additional help.

Twenty four per cent of participants reported experiencing significant pain, very often suffering from pain that was moderate or severe most of the time and across all four physical abilities considered by the experts. Those with pain demonstrated significantly higher rates of functional limitations when compared to individuals who did not have pain. For example, in the mobility function of all people with the ages between 50 and 59 years who did not experience pain, 37 per cent were able to jog one mile and 91 per cent were able to walk several blocks without any problem, when compared to just 9 per cent and 50 per cent respectively in the participants with pain. This made the pain sufferers appear 20 to 30 years older than those who did not suffer any pain.

After taking into consideration such factors as demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, stress, depression, obesity, and health habits, across all four categories, individuals with significant pain were at much higher risk for having functional limitations, said a principal researcher of the study Dr. Kenneth Covinsky from the Division of Geriatrics at University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Covinsky and his fellow colleagues said that it is the first piece of research that directly looks into and analyzes the relationship between pain and functionality across the lifespan. The investigators were not able to establish whether it was pain that caused the disability or whether disability caused the pain. Most probably both cause the pain and pain and disability work together in such way that make both problems worsen in a downward spiral. The experts suggested that pain should not be treated as some separate entity. Treating disability that brings down daily function to the level of a much older individual should also be addressed.

The findings appear in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.

Tags: Pain Management, Aging

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