• Feinuo Sun, Zachary Zimmer, and Anna Zajacova.
• Global Aging and Community Initiative, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Electronic address: feinuo.sun@msvu.ca.
• J Pain. 2023 Jun 1; 24 (6): 100910191009-1019.

AbstractPrevious literature has rarely examined the role of pain in the process of disablement. We investigate how pain associates with disability transitions among older adults, using educational attainment as a moderator. Data are from the National Health and Aging Trends Study, N = 6,357; 33,201 1 year transitions between 2010 to 2020. We estimate multinomial logistic models predicting incidence or onset of and recovery from functional limitation and disability. Results show pain significantly predicts functional limitation and disability onset 1 year after a baseline observation, and decreases odds of recovery from functional limitation or disability. Contrary to expectations, higher education does not buffer the association of pain in onset of disability, but supporting expectations, it facilitates recovery from functional limitation or disability among those with pain. The analysis implicates pain as having a key role in the disablement process and suggests that education may moderate this with respect to coping with and subsequently recovering from disability. PERSPECTIVE: This article is among the first examining how pain is placed in the disablement process by affecting onset of and recovery from disability. Both paths are affected by pain, but education moderates the association only with respect to the recovery process.Copyright © 2023 United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

15 keywords...

hide…