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
. 2022 Jul 22:3:886985.
doi: 10.3389/fpain.2022.886985. eCollection 2022.

The impact of low back pain and vigorous activity on mental and physical health outcomes in older adults with arthritis

Janiece L Taylor  1   2 , Natalie G Regier  1   2 , Qiwei Li  1 , Minhui Liu  3 , Sarah L Szanton  1   2 , Richard L Skolasky  4
Affiliations

The impact of low back pain and vigorous activity on mental and physical health outcomes in older adults with arthritis

Janiece L Taylor et al. Front Pain Res (Lausanne). .

Abstract

Background: Nearly 50% of Americans aged 65 and above have been diagnosed with arthritis and an estimated 80% of adults experience low back pain (LBP). Little is known about the experience of LBP in older adults with arthritis and its relationships with mental and physical health.

Objective: In this study, we examined the relationships between LBP and four physical and mental health conditions (psychological distress, insomnia, mobility limitations, and self-rated health) in older adults with arthritis in the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS). We also examined whether vigorous exercise mediated the relationships between LBP and these four conditions.

Materials and methods: The data from this study comes from waves five through nine of the NHATS. The sample size ranged from 3,490 to 2,026 across these waves. All variables in this study are based on self-report. We used descriptive analyses including means and standard deviations for continuous variables or frequencies and proportions for demographic data. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine if vigorous activity mediated the relationship between LBP with the four conditions.

Results: The age range of the sample was 65 years of age and older. Among those with back pain 78.53% had no mobility limitations. There was a significant relationship between LBP with insomnia (B = 0.48, p < 0.001), perceived health status (B = -0.38, p < 0.0010), and psychological distress (0.67, p < 0.001). Activity mediated the relationship between LBP and insomnia, psychological distress and physical health in adjusted models.

Discussion: The presence of low back pain in older adults with arthritis increases the risk of insomnia, psychological distress, mobility limitations, and poorer self-rated health. Consequently, targeting comorbid LBP may be an important component of the treatment plans of older adults with arthritis. In addition, providers of patients with arthritis and LBP should conduct routine assessments of mental and physical health to ensure the LBP is being adequately addressed.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; disability; low back pain; older adults; physical activity.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mediation model with vigorous activities mediating relationship between pain and mobility.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mediation model with vigorous activities mediating relationship between pain and health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Vos T, Allen C, Arora M, Barber RM, Bhutta ZA, Brown A, et al. . Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 310 diseases and injuries, 1990–2015: A systematic analysis for the global burden of disease study 2015. Lancet. (2016) 388:1545–602. 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31678-6 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Deyo RA, Mirza SK, Martin BI. Back pain prevalence and visit rates: estimates from US national surveys 2002. Spine. (2006) 31:2724–7. 10.1097/01.brs.0000244618.06877.cd - DOI - PubMed
    1. McKillop AB, Carroll LJ, Jones CA, Battié MC. The relation of social support and depression in patients with chronic low back pain. Disabil Rehabil. (2017) 39:1482–8. 10.1080/09638288.2016.1202335 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Park S, Kim H, Jang S, Kim H, Chang BS, Lee CK, et al. . Depression is closely associated with chronic low back pain in patients over 50 years of age: a cross-sectional study using the sixth Korea national health and nutrition examination survey (KNHANES VI-2). Spine. (2018) 43:1281–8. 10.1097/BRS.0000000000002595 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Patel KV, Phelan EA, Leveille SG, Lamb SE, Missikpode C, Wallace RB, et al. . High prevalence of falls, fear of falling, and impaired balance in older adults with pain in the United States: findings from the 2011. National health and aging trends study. J A Geriatr Soc. (2014) 62:1844–52. 10.1111/jgs.13072 - DOI - PMC - PubMed