General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer

Background: While the heterogeniety of pain progression has been studied in chronic diseases, it is unclear the extent to which patterns of pain progression among people in general as well as across different diseases impacts on social, civic and political engagement. We explore these issues for th...

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Main Authors: James, Richard J.E., Walsh, David A., Ferguson, Eamonn
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50353/
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author James, Richard J.E.
Walsh, David A.
Ferguson, Eamonn
author_facet James, Richard J.E.
Walsh, David A.
Ferguson, Eamonn
author_sort James, Richard J.E.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Background: While the heterogeniety of pain progression has been studied in chronic diseases, it is unclear the extent to which patterns of pain progression among people in general as well as across different diseases impacts on social, civic and political engagement. We explore these issues for the first time. Methods: Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, latent class growth models were used to estimate trajectories of self-reported pain in the entire cohort, and within subsamples reporting diagnoses of arthritis and cancer. These were compared at baseline on physical health (e.g., BMI, smoking) and over time on social, civic and political engagement. Results: Very similar four trajectory models fit the whole sample and arthritis subsamples, whereas a three trajectory model fit the cancer subsample. All samples had a modal group experiencing minimal chronic pain, and a group with high chronic pain that showed slight regression (more pronounced in cancer). Biometric indices were more predictive of the most painful trajectory in arthritis than cancer. In both samples the group experiencing the most pain at baseline reported impairments in social, civic and political engagement. Conclusions: The impact of pain differs between individuals and between diseases. Indicators of physical and psychological health differently predicted membership of the trajectories most affected by pain. These trajectories were associated with differences in engagement with social and civic life, which in turn was associated with poorer health and well-being.
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spelling nottingham-503532020-05-08T12:00:25Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50353/ General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer James, Richard J.E. Walsh, David A. Ferguson, Eamonn Background: While the heterogeniety of pain progression has been studied in chronic diseases, it is unclear the extent to which patterns of pain progression among people in general as well as across different diseases impacts on social, civic and political engagement. We explore these issues for the first time. Methods: Using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, latent class growth models were used to estimate trajectories of self-reported pain in the entire cohort, and within subsamples reporting diagnoses of arthritis and cancer. These were compared at baseline on physical health (e.g., BMI, smoking) and over time on social, civic and political engagement. Results: Very similar four trajectory models fit the whole sample and arthritis subsamples, whereas a three trajectory model fit the cancer subsample. All samples had a modal group experiencing minimal chronic pain, and a group with high chronic pain that showed slight regression (more pronounced in cancer). Biometric indices were more predictive of the most painful trajectory in arthritis than cancer. In both samples the group experiencing the most pain at baseline reported impairments in social, civic and political engagement. Conclusions: The impact of pain differs between individuals and between diseases. Indicators of physical and psychological health differently predicted membership of the trajectories most affected by pain. These trajectories were associated with differences in engagement with social and civic life, which in turn was associated with poorer health and well-being. BioMed Central 2018-04-09 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50353/8/document-1%20Ferguson.pdf James, Richard J.E., Walsh, David A. and Ferguson, Eamonn (2018) General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer. BMC Medicine, 16 . 51/1-51/14. ISSN 1741-7015 Pain; arthritis; cancer; social engagement; voting; longitudinal https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1031-9 doi:10.1186/s12916-018-1031-9 doi:10.1186/s12916-018-1031-9
spellingShingle Pain; arthritis; cancer; social engagement; voting; longitudinal
James, Richard J.E.
Walsh, David A.
Ferguson, Eamonn
General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer
title General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer
title_full General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer
title_fullStr General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer
title_full_unstemmed General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer
title_short General and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer
title_sort general and disease-specific pain trajectories as predictors of social and political outcomes in arthritis and cancer
topic Pain; arthritis; cancer; social engagement; voting; longitudinal
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50353/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50353/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50353/