ArticleJournal of the American Geriatrics Society2012
Persistence and remission of musculoskeletal pain in community-dwelling older adults: results from the cardiovascular health study.
Article in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Collaborative care for pain results in both symptom improvement and sustained reduction of pain and depression.General hospital psychiatryTrial
- Treatment of forefoot problems in older people: a randomized clinical trial comparing podiatric treatment with standardized shoe advice.Annals of family medicineTrial
- Demographic and socioeconomic risk factors for pain progression and recurrence in middle-aged and older adults: multistate analysis of a prospective English cohort study.Age and ageing · 2026Article
- Joint Pain and Leisure-Time Physical Activity: Cross-Sectional Findings From the Cardiovascular Health Study.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Applying the NIA Health Disparities Research Framework to Identify Needs and Opportunities in Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain Research.The journal of pain · 2022Review
- [The Mainz Pain Staging System is also suitable for grading chronic pain in inpatient geriatric patients].Schmerz (Berlin, Germany) · 2020Article
- Sex-specific muscle and metabolic biomarkers associated with gait speed and cognitive transitions in older adults: a 9-year follow-up.GeroScience · 2020Article
- Restricting Back Pain and Subsequent Disability in Activities of Daily Living Among Community-Living Older Adults.Journal of aging and health · 2018Article
- A one-year follow-up study of chronic pain in community-dwelling older adults with and without neuropathic pain.BMC geriatrics · 2017Article
- Pain and Satisfaction With Pain Management Among Older Patients During the Transition From Acute to Skilled Nursing Care.The Gerontologist · 2016Article
- Pain trajectory groups in persons with, or at high risk of, knee osteoarthritis: findings from the Knee Clinical Assessment Study and the Osteoarthritis Initiative.Osteoarthritis and cartilage · 2014Article
- Pain measurement in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project: presence, intensity, and location.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2014Article
- Risk factors for restricting back pain in older persons.Journal of the American Medical Directors Association · 2014Article
- Physician practicing preferences for conventional or homeopathic medicines in elderly subjects with musculoskeletal disorders in the EPI3-MSD cohort.Clinical epidemiology · 2014Article
- Relationship between persistent pain and 5-year mortality: a population-based prospective cohort study.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2013Article
- Transitions among Health States Using 12 Measures of Successful Aging in Men and Women: Results from the Cardiovascular Health Study.Journal of aging research · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 10 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo characterize longitudinal patterns of musculoskeletal pain in a community sample of older adults over a 6-year period and to identify factors associated with persistence of pain.
designSecondary analysis of the Cardiovascular Health Study.
settingCommunity-based cohort drawn from four U.S. counties.
participantsFive thousand ninety-three men and women aged 65 and older. MEASUREMENTS: Over a 6-year period, pain was assessed each year using a single question about the presence of pain in any bones or joints during the last year. If affirmative, participants were queried about pain in seven locations (hands, shoulders, neck, back, hips, knees, feet). Participants were categorized according to the percentage of time that pain was present and according to the intermittent or chronic pattern of pain. Factors associated with persistent pain during five remaining years of the study were identified.
resultsOver 6 years, 32% of participants reported pain for three or more consecutive years, and 32% reported pain intermittently. Of those who reported pain the first year, 54% were pain free at least once during the follow-up period. Most of the pain at specific body locations was intermittent. Factors associated with remission of pain over 5 years included older age, male sex, better self-rated health, not being obese, taking fewer medications, and having fewer depressive symptoms. Approximately half of those with pain reported fewer pain locations the following year.
conclusionMusculoskeletal pain in older adults, despite high prevalence, is often intermittent. The findings refute the notion that pain is an inevitable, unremitting, or progressive consequence of aging.
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