Understanding pain among older persons: Part 1-the development of novel pain profiles and their association with disability and quality of life

Background: while a range of variables are related to the impact of pain, most population studies of older persons have simply examined the presence or intensity of pain. Objective: to develop novel pain profiles based on a range of pain variables, and compare demographic and health variables across profiles. Methods: baseline data from The Irish LongituDinal study on Ageing (TILDA), a population-representative cohort study involving 8,171 community living people resident in Ireland aged 50 or over, was used. Two-step cluster analysis was performed on those who reported being often troubled by pain using all self-reported pain variables. Nine demographic and health variables were compared across pain profiles and the no-pain profile. Results: of the cohort, 65% reported not often being troubled by pain. Of those troubled by pain, four profiles emerged ranging from the profile whose pain did not have impact on daily activities (12% of cohort) to the profile with everyone taking medication to control the pain (9% of cohort). All demographic and health variables differed significantly across the profiles (all P < 0.05) with pain profiles reporting significantly greater disability and poorer quality of life than the no-pain profile (P < 0.05). Conclusions: four pain profiles, based on a range of pain variables, as well as a no-pain profile were identifiable in a large sample of older adults. Identifying those (i) with multi-site pain, (ii) who take pain medications and/or (iii) whose pain affects daily activities clearly identifies those with the highest levels of disability and poorest quality of life.