Pain and quality of life in older men and women: Crosssectional findings from the survey of health, ageing and retirement In Europe

Abstract

Introduction: Pain is associated with poorer physical and mental health in older adults. We investigated the association between pain and quality of life in older adults. Method(s): Data from 34,090 community-dwelling adults >= 65 years, without cognitive impairment, who were direct respondents in Wave 6 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were analysed. Participants were asked "Are you troubled with pain?", and "In the last month, have you felt that you would rather be dead?". The association between pain intensity and the response to the "rather be dead" question was analysed by binary logistic regression, adjusted for age, sex, country, self-rated health, co-morbidities, medications, physical inactivity, living alone, loneliness, and stratified by sex. Result(s): The mean age was 73.8 years (standard deviation 6.6, range 65-102); 18,775 (55.1%) participants were women. 2,475 (7.3%) reported they felt they would rather be dead: This proportion increased with the severity of pain: 758/17,524 (4.3%) with no pain, 201/3395 (5.9%) with mild pain, 779/9275 (8.4%) with moderate pain and 737/3896 (18.9%) with severe pain reported they felt they would rather be dead. In age and sex-adjusted analyses, mild, moderate and severe pain were all associated with an increased likelihood of feeling "I would rather be dead" compared to no pain. After full adjustment, severe pain was associated with an increased likelihood (odds ratio 1.56, 95% confidence interval 1.35-1.81) of feeling "I would rather be dead". Key conclusions: Pain is significantly associated with poorer quality of life in older adults.