Task-switching ability protects against the adverse effects of pain on health: A longitudinal study of older adults

Abstract

Objective: Ageing is often accompanied by increases in pain, which may threaten physical health. Successfully managing increased pain requires the ability to switch attention away from the pain and towards adaptive health cognitions and behaviours. However, no study to date has tested how pain interacts with task-switching ability to predict future health in older adults. Additionally, no study has tested whether objective (i.e., task-switching performance) or subjective measures of cognitive ability have a stronger impact on future health.

Design/methods: The current study tested these interactions in community-dwelling older adults. Participants included 150 older adults who provided pain, task-switching ability, subjective cognitive functioning, and health data every 6 months for up to 5 years.

Results: Multilevel modelling was used to analyse the data, yielding gammas (γ) analogous to unstandardized beta weights in regression. A significant interaction between task-switching and pain indicated that when task-switching ability was lower than usual, higher-than-usual pain predicted poorer health at the following wave (γ = 0.30, SE = 0.12, t(663) = 2.45, p = .009; 95% CI: 0.07-0.65). When task-switching ability was higher than usual, there was no effect of pain on health (γ = -0.13, t(663) = -0.85, p = .39; 95% CI: -0.44-0.17). No significant interaction was found for subjective cognitive functioning.

Conclusions: Objective task-switching ability, but not subjective cognitive functioning, may have health-protective effects when older adults experience increases in pain.

Statement of contribution: What is already known on the subject? As people age, they are more likely to experience pain. Increases in pain threaten health. Older adults are at particular risk for both increased pain and poor health. What does this study add? When pain levels are higher than usual, task-switching ability protects older adults from future declines in health. Within people, task-switching ability interacts with pain to promote healthy ageing.

Keywords: beta-2 microglobulin; executive functioning; interleukin-6; older adults; pain.

Figure 1

Study Data Accrual NOTE: Cumulative data points represent the total number of data points that were available for analysis.

Figure 2

Depiction of the Interaction between Task-Switching Ability and Pain Predicting Ill Health 6 Months Later ** = p < .01 for the interaction term of task-switching ability and pain predicting ill health 6 months later.