Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jan;57(1):115-9.
doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2008.02089.x. Epub 2008 Nov 19.

Chronic pain and obesity in elderly people: results from the Einstein aging study

Lucas H McCarthy  1 , Marcelo E Bigal, Mindy Katz, Carol Derby, Richard B Lipton
Affiliations

Chronic pain and obesity in elderly people: results from the Einstein aging study

Lucas H McCarthy et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Jan.

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of chronic pain in elderly people and its relationship with obesity and associated comorbidities and risk factors.

Design: Cross-sectional.

Setting: Community.

Participants: A representative community sample of 840 subjects aged 70 and older.

Measurements: The prevalence of chronic pain and its relationship with obesity (categories defined according to body mass index (BMI)), other medical risk factors, and psychiatric comorbidities were examined. Chronic pain was defined as pain of at least moderate severity (> or =4 on a 10-point scale) some, most, or all of the time for the previous 3 months.

Results: The sample was mostly female (62.8%), and the average age was 80 (range 70-101). The prevalence of chronic pain was 52% (39.7% in men; 58.9% in women). Subjects with chronic pain were more likely to report a diagnosis of depression (odds ratio (OR)=2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.40-4.55) and anxiety (OR=2.3, 95% CI=1.22-4.64). Obese subjects (BMI 30-34.9) were twice as likely (OR=2.1, 95%CI=1.33-3.28) and severely obese subjects (BMI> or =35) were more than four times as likely (OR=4.5, 95% CI=1.85-12.63) as those of normal weight (BMI 18.5-24.9) to have chronic pain. Obese subjects were significantly more likely to have chronic pain in the head, neck or shoulder, back, legs or feet, and abdomen or pelvis than subjects who were not obese. In multivariate models, obesity (OR=2.0, 95% CI=1.27-3.26) and severe obesity (OR=4.1, 95% CI=1.57-10.82) were associated with chronic pain after adjusting for age, sex, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, depression, anxiety, and education.

Conclusion: Chronic pain is common in this elderly population, affects women more than men, and is highly associated with obesity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The editor in chief has reviewed the conflict of interest checklist provided by the authors and has determined that the authors have no financial or any other kind of personal conflicts with this paper.

References

    1. IASP. Classification of chronic pain. Descriptions of chronic pain syndromes and definitions of pain terms. Prepared by the International Association for the Study of Pain, Subcommittee on Taxonomy. Pain. 1986;3:S1–226. - PubMed
    1. Jakobsson U, Klevsgard R, Westergren A, et al. Old people in pain: a comparative study. J Pain and Symptom Management. 2003 Jul;26(1):625–636. - PubMed
    1. Elliott AM, Smith BH, Penny KI, et al. The epidemiology of chronic pain in the community. Lancet. 1999;354:1248–1252. - PubMed
    1. Catala E, Reig E, Artes M, et al. Prevalence of pain in the Spanish population: telephone survey in 5000 homes. Eur J Pain (London, England) 2002;6:133–140. - PubMed
    1. Rustoen T, Wahl AK, Hanestad BR, et al. Prevalence and characteristics of chronic pain in the general Norwegian population. Eur J Pain (London, England) 2004 Dec;8:555–565. - PubMed

Publication types