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
. 2013 Sep;36(5):483-91.
doi: 10.1179/2045772312Y.0000000072.

The association of age, pain, and fatigue with physical functioning and depressive symptoms in persons with spinal cord injury

Kevin N Alschuler  1 , Mark P Jensen, Sarah J Sullivan-Singh, Soo Borson, Amanda E Smith, Ivan R Molton
Affiliations

The association of age, pain, and fatigue with physical functioning and depressive symptoms in persons with spinal cord injury

Kevin N Alschuler et al. J Spinal Cord Med. 2013 Sep.

Abstract

Context/objective: To describe the relationship of pain and fatigue with physical and psychological functioning in adults with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Community-based survey.

Participants: Convenience sample of individuals with SCI.

Intervention: Not applicable.

Outcome measures: Physical functioning (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Physical Functioning item bank items), depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)), pain severity (0-10 Numerical Rating Scale (NRS)), and fatigue (0-10 NRS).

Results: Pain and fatigue were independently associated with depression, but only pain was associated with physical functioning. Additionally, depression was more severe among middle-aged participants relative to younger or older participants. Physical functioning declined with increasing age, as well as with higher level of injury.

Conclusions: The findings support the need for continued development of effective treatments for both pain and fatigue in order to prevent and mitigate the negative effects these symptoms can have on functioning.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ehde DM, Jensen MP, Engel JM, Turner JA, Hoffman AJ, Cardenas DD. Chronic pain secondary to disability: a review. Clin J Pain 2003;19(1):3–17 - PubMed
    1. Jensen MP, Molton IR, Groah SL, Campbell ML, Charlifue S, Chiodo A, et al. Secondary health conditions in individuals aging with SCI: terminology, concepts and analytic approaches. Spinal Cord 2012;50(5):373–8 - PubMed
    1. McKinley WO, Jackson AB, Cardenas DD, DeVivo MJ. Long-term medical complications after traumatic spinal cord injury: a regional model systems analysis. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 1999;80(11):1402–10 - PubMed
    1. Turner JA, Cardenas DD, Warms CA, McClellan CB. Chronic pain associated with spinal cord injuries: a community survey. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2001;82(4):501–9 - PubMed
    1. Cook KF, Molton IR, Jensen MP. Fatigue and aging with a disability. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2011;92(7):1126–33 - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources