ArticlePain2013
Prevalence and impact of pain among older adults in the United States: findings from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study.
Article in Pain, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 375 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
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.
Effects of Acute Pain on Motor Learning in Young vs Older Adults
Feasibility and Effect of Remotely Supervised Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation With Chair Yoga for Chronic Knee Pain Management in Older Adults With Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.
Who cites it
375 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Predictors and Clinical Outcomes of Long-Term Opioid Therapy in Older Adults: A Systematic Review.Pharmacotherapy · 2026Pooled it
- Association between pain and sarcopenia in middle-aged and older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Exercise intervention for patients with chronic low back pain: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2023Pooled it
- Association of Back Pain with Mortality: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cohort Studies.Journal of general internal medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Distribution and prevalence of musculoskeletal pain co-occurring with persistent low back pain: a systematic review.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2021Pooled it
- Acute pain impairs locomotor learning and retention in older adults.The journal of pain · 2026Trial
- Perceived Pain Following Hypnotic Deprescribing in Older Adults.Journal of the American Geriatrics Society · 2026Trial
- Problem Adaptation Therapy for Older Adults with Chronic Pain and Negative Emotions in Primary Care (PATH-Pain): A Randomized Clinical Trial.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Addressing Pain Using a Mediterranean Ketogenic Nutrition Program in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment.Journal of pain research · 2024Trial
- Longitudinal associations of pain and cognitive decline in community-dwelling older adults.Psychology and aging · 2022Trial
- Differences in Dietary Habits, Physical Exercise, and Quality of Life between Male and Female Patients with Overweight.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Trial
- Chronic Pain in Older Adults: Risk Factors and Prevention.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Association Between Sedentary Behavior and the Development of New-Onset Chronic Pain in Older American Adults: Insights From the Health and Retirement Study.American journal of health promotion : AJHP · 2026Article
- Caregiver- and Care Recipient-Related Factors Linked to Pain in Family Caregivers of Persons Living with Dementia.Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · 2026Article
- Body Composition, Strength, Mobility, and Posture Associated with Shoulder Pain and Disability in Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Narrative Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Review
- Assessment of depression and pain in the general population: a scoping review.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Depressive Symptom Trajectories and Incident Pain: The Role of Nocturnal Sleep Duration in Two Prospective Cohort Studies.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2026Article
- Cumulative adulthood trauma exposures and pain outcomes among older adults.British journal of pain · 2026Article
- Ecological momentary pain and physical activity volume and patterns in older adults with chronic multisite pain.BMC geriatrics · 2026Observational
- Utilizing the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to Describe Quality-of-Life Assessment in Older Adults in a Middle-Income Country.Physiotherapy research international : the journal for researchers and clinicians in physical therapy · 2026Article
315 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
This study sought to determine the prevalence and impact of pain in a nationally representative sample of older adults in the United States. Data from the 2011 National Health and Aging Trends Study were analyzed. In-person interviews were conducted in 7601 adults ages ≥65 years. The response rate was 71.0% and all analyses were weighted to account for the sampling design. The overall prevalence of bothersome pain in the last month was 52.9%, afflicting 18.7 million older adults in the United States. Pain did not vary across age groups (P = 0.21), and this pattern remained unchanged when accounting for cognitive performance, dementia, proxy responses, and residential care living status. Pain prevalence was higher in women and in older adults with obesity, musculoskeletal conditions, and depressive symptoms (P < 0.001). The majority (74.9%) of older adults with pain endorsed multiple sites of pain. Several measures of physical capacity, including grip strength and lower-extremity physical performance, were associated with pain and multisite pain. For example, self-reported inability to walk 3 blocks was 72% higher in participants with than without pain (adjusted prevalence ratio 1.72 [95% confidence interval 1.56-1.90]). Participants with 1, 2, 3, and ≥4 sites of pain had gait speeds that were 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, and 0.08 meters per second slower, respectively, than older adults without pain, adjusting for disease burden and other potential confounders (P < 0.001). In summary, bothersome pain in the last month was reported by half of the older adult population of the United States in 2011 and was strongly associated with decreased physical function.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.