ArticleBMJ open2018
What factors mediate the inter-relationship between frailty and pain in cognitively and functionally sound older adults? A prospective longitudinal ageing cohort study in Taiwan.
Article in BMJ open, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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15 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Feasibility of a yoga intervention to decrease pain in older women: a randomized controlled pilot study.BMC geriatrics · 2020Trial
- Pain characteristics and incident frailty in community-dwelling older adults: dose-response relationships and sex differences in a longitudinal study on aging in Taiwan.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- From age to frailty: redefining chronic pain characterization.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2025Article
- A Bayesian Structural Equation Model to Predict Quality of Life in European Older Adults.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2025Article
- Association Between Pain and Frailty in Middle-Aged and Older Patients: The Mediating Roles of Sleep and Mood.Clinical interventions in aging · 2025Article
- Associations among frailty conditions and pain indicators: Data from 22 356 European older adults.Geriatrics & gerontology international · 2024Observational
- The Difficulties of Managing Pain in People Living with Frailty: The Potential for Digital Phenotyping.Drugs & aging · 2024Article
- Association between chronic pain and cognitive frailty among middle-aged and elderly individuals: evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Article
- Body pain and functional disability predict falls in Chinese older adults: a population-based cohort study.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Path Model Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Older Thais Living in Rural Areas.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The Evolutionary Stage of Cognitive Frailty and Its Changing Characteristics in Old Adults.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2021Article
- Pain and Frailty in Hospitalized Older Adults.Pain and therapy · 2020Review
- Pain and Its Impact on Functional Health: 7-Year Longitudinal Findings among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in Indonesia.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Article
- Post-acute Use of Opioids and Psychotropics in Patients after Hip Fracture: Unintended Consequences of Implementing Diagnosis-Related Grouping Payment.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe main aim was to investigate the complex inter-relationship between frailty and pain, and the mediating roles of cognitive function, morbidity and mood in this nexus.
designA cross-sectional analysis.
settingA prospective community-dwelling population-based cohort.
participants1682 adults age ≥50 years without evident cognitive or functional impairment, or history of cancer. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The mediating effect of depression, cognitive function and comorbidity on the nexus between pain and frailty among older and middle-aged adults.
resultsThe pain score among older subjects (≥65 years), increased with the degree of frailty (robust=0.96±0.82; pre-frail=1.13±0.86; frail=1.63±1.02; P<0.001); multivariate analysis gave the same result, while moderate pain was associated with frailty in older subjects (OR=3.00, 95% CI 1.30 to 6.60). Conversely, pain and frailty among middle-aged subjects (aged 50-64 years) did not appear to be significantly related; in mediation analysis, pain exerted an indirect effect on frailty via depression (indirect effect=0.03, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.07), while neither cognitive function nor comorbidity had any significant effect in mediating the relationship between pain and frailty.
conclusionIn cognitively and functionally sound community-dwelling adults aged ≥50 years, moderate pain was related to frailty in those older than 65 years, but not younger ones. Besides the direct influence of pain on frailty, depression partially mediated the pain-frailty nexus. The mechanism by which depression influences pain and frailty requires further investigation.
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