ArticleBritish journal of health psychology2016
Task-switching ability protects against the adverse effects of pain on health: A longitudinal study of older adults.
Article in British journal of health psychology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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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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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Differential Predictive Capabilities of Cognitive Performance on Psychological Pain Variables in Chronic Low Back Pain.Pain research & management · 2026Article
- Emotional approach coping in older adults as predictor of physical and mental health.Psychology and aging · 2020Article
- Maintenance of affective wellbeing following acute pain in healthy older and younger adults.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2019Article
- Self-regulatory ability, fatigue, and the experience of pain: Mechanistic insights from pain-free undergraduates.Psychophysiology · 2019Article
- Associations of Pain Intensity and Frequency With Loneliness, Hostility, and Social Functioning: Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Within-Person Relationships.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveAgeing is often accompanied by increases in pain, which may threaten physical health. Successfully managing increased pain requires the ability to switch attention away from the pain and towards adaptive health cognitions and behaviours. However, no study to date has tested how pain interacts with task-switching ability to predict future health in older adults. Additionally, no study has tested whether objective (i.e., task-switching performance) or subjective measures of cognitive ability have a stronger impact on future health. DESIGN/
methodsThe current study tested these interactions in community-dwelling older adults. Participants included 150 older adults who provided pain, task-switching ability, subjective cognitive functioning, and health data every 6 months for up to 5 years.
resultsMultilevel modelling was used to analyse the data, yielding gammas (γ) analogous to unstandardized beta weights in regression. A significant interaction between task-switching and pain indicated that when task-switching ability was lower than usual, higher-than-usual pain predicted poorer health at the following wave (γ = 0.30, SE = 0.12, t(663) = 2.45, p = .009; 95% CI: 0.07-0.65). When task-switching ability was higher than usual, there was no effect of pain on health (γ = -0.13, t(663) = -0.85, p = .39; 95% CI: -0.44-0.17). No significant interaction was found for subjective cognitive functioning.
conclusionsObjective task-switching ability, but not subjective cognitive functioning, may have health-protective effects when older adults experience increases in pain. STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION: What is already known on the subject? As people age, they are more likely to experience pain. Increases in pain threaten health. Older adults are at particular risk for both increased pain and poor health. What does this study add? When pain levels are higher than usual, task-switching ability protects older adults from future declines in health. Within people, task-switching ability interacts with pain to promote healthy ageing.
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