• Caroline Larsson, Ekvall Hansson Eva E Department of health Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Eva.Ekvall-Hansson@med.lu.se., Kristina Sundquist, and Ulf Jakobsson.
• Center for Primary Health Care Research, Lund University/Region Skåne, Malmö, Sweden. Caroline.Larsson@med.lu.se.
• BMC Geriatr. 2016 Feb 24; 16: 50.

BackgroundTo explore the level of physical activity in a population based sample of older adults; to analyze the influence of pain characteristics and fear-avoidance beliefs as predictors of physical activity among older adults reporting chronic pain.MethodsDemographics, pain characteristics (duration, intensity), physical activity, kinesiophobia (excessive fear of movement/(re) injury), self-efficacy and self-rated health were measured with questionnaires at baseline and 12-months later. Logistic regression analyses were done to identify associations at baseline and predictors of physical activity 12-months later during follow-up.ResultsOf the 1141 older adults (mean age 74.4 range 65-103 years, 53.5% women) included in the study, 31.1% of those with chronic pain were sufficiently active (scoring ≥ 4 on Grimby's physical activity scale) compared to 56.9% of those without chronic pain. Lower age (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = 0.88-0.99), low kinesiophobia OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.91-0.99), and higher activity level at baseline (OR = 10.0, 95% CI = 4.98-20.67) significantly predicted higher levels of physical activity in individuals with chronic pain.ConclusionThe level of physical activity was significantly lower among those with chronic pain and was significantly associated with kinesiophobia. Our findings suggest that fear- avoidance believes plays a more important role in predicting future physical activity levels than pain characteristics. Thus our findings are important to consider when aiming to increase physical activity in older adults that have chronic pain.

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